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THE CHRISTIC REIGN 



The Christic Reign 

And Other Sermons 



By 

Robert Stuart MacArthur 

Minister of Calvary Baptist Church, New York 
since May 15, 1870 

Author of 
From the Invasion of Canaan to the Last of the Judges," "Calvary 
Pulpit," "Divine Balustrades," "The Attractive Christ," "Quick 
Truths in Quaint Texts," " Current Questions for Thinking 
Men," "Sunday Night Lectures on Palestine," "The 
Celestial Lamp," "Old Testament Difficulties," "The 
Question of the Centuries," " Old Book and Old 
Faith," "Around the World," " Quick Truths 
in Quaint Texts " (Second Series), " Cal- 
vary Hymnal," " Laudes Domini," 
"In Excelsis," "People's Wor- 
ship and- Psalter," "Advent 
and Other^Sermons." 



/ say the acknowledgment of God in Christ 
Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee 
All questions in the world and out of it, 
And hath so far advanced thee to be wise. 

—BROWNING. 



Philadelphia 

American Baptist Publication Society 

Boston Chicago Atlanta 

New York St, Louis Dallas 



,+ 



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LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
IwoCoDies rtecttv* 

JUN 16 1908 

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Copyright 1908 by the 
American Baptist Publication Society 



Published May, 1908 



ffcom tbe Society's own Jprese 



MY FRIEND OF COLLEGE DAYS 
AND THE BUSY YEARS SINCE 

IRew fl>Mltp %. $ones> D. 2>< 

BOOK EDITOR OF THE AMERI- 
CAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION 
SOCIETY, UNDER WHOSE SUPER- 
VISION THIS BOOK AND MANY 
COMPANION VOLUMES HAVE 
ISSUED FROM THE PRESS 



PREFACE 



Most of the sermons in this volume were recently 
preached on consecutive Sunday mornings in Cal- 
vary Church. The first one in the volume was 
preached in Washington before the three national 
societies, May 19, 1907. The second also was pre- 
pared for a similar occasion. A time of spiritual 
refreshing was enjoyed by Calvary Church during 
the delivery of these sermons. Several of them 
were owned of God in immmediate conversions. 
The aim was to exalt Christ as the Saviour of men ; 
and he graciously drew goodly numbers to himself. 
To his Name be all the praise ! 

The Author. 

Calvary Study, New York. 



CONTENTS 

SERMON PAGE 

I. The Christic Reign 9 

II. The Basilic Psalm 28 

III. The Promiseful Presence 47 

IV. The Shining Face 59 

V. The Worthiest Resolution 71 

VI. The Noblest Capacity 88 

VII. The Thirty-seventh Anniversary . . . .100 

VIII. The Commendable Obedience 112 

IX. The Threefold Possession 122 

X. The Lifeful Look 135 

XI. The Divinest Quest 150 

XII. The Pervasive Leaven 163 

XIII. The Fivefold Welcome 176 

XIV. The Interrogative Confession ..' . . . . 190 
XV. The Despicable Possibility 204 

XVI. The Divine Saint George 216 

XVII. The Complete Redemption 226 

XVIII. The Triple Endowment 238 

XIX. The Knocking Christ 248 

XX. The Illative Exhortation 259 



The Christic Reign 



THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

Text: Of the increase of his government and of peace 
there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon 
his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice 
and with righteousness from henceforth even forever. 
The zeal of Jehovah will perform this. — Isa. 9 : 7. 

BEAUTIFUL for situation is Constantinople, 
the city of Constantine. As seen from the sea, 
its aspect is picturesque and magnificent. It is situ- 
ated at the entrance of the Bosphorus, on a trian- 
gular peninsula formed by the Golden Horn and 
the sea of Marmora. The hilly shores of this sea 
are adorned with villas and gardens, making a 
scene of rare beauty. But when the city is entered, 
its streets are found to be narrow, crooked, and 
filthy; many of the houses are dilapidated, and the 
entire atmosphere is filled with offensive odors. 

There are in Constantinople, it is said, not fewer 
than five hundred of the larger mosques, known as 
jamihs; and there are from four to five thousand 

9 



10 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

of the smaller mosques, known as mesjids. It is 
well known that the mosque of Saint Sophia, Agia 
Sofia, " Holy Wisdom," or the " Logos," is far and 
away the most celebrated structure in Constanti- 
nople. It was formerly the Church of Saint 
Sophia. This church was founded in 325, by the 
Emperor Constantine, to commemorate the trans- 
ference of the seat of the empire to Byzantium. 
The earlier structure was rebuilt and enlarged by 
Constantius, the son of Constantine; this second 
church was destroyed in 404, and was rebuilt by 
Theodosius the younger in 415. It was finally re- 
built by Justinian in 532-8. Ten thousand men are 
said to have been employed upon the structure. 
Every portion of the empire made a contribution of 
materials, some being taken from pagan monu- 
ments. The green jasper columns are said to have 
been taken from the celebrated Temple of Diana at 
Ephesus. The church is the masterpiece of Byzan- 
tine architecture; it was one of the epoch-making 
buildings of the world. Its architect was Anthem- 
ius, a Greek mathematician, engineer, and archi- 
tect. In the construction of this church, he was the 
founder of the developed Byzantine style. 

The building was transformed into a mosque by 
Mohammed II in 1453, when the Turks captured 
Constantinople. At that time, all the Christian 
emblems were either destroyed, or covered by a 
coating of plaster. The latter course was followed 
in the case of all mosaic pictures which represented 



THE CHRISTIC REIGN II 

the human figure, such representations being pro- 
scribed by the Koran. It thus came to pass that 
the mosaics, for the most part, escaped destruction. 

A few years ago I visited Constantinople at a 
time of great excitement in the city. An uprising 
against the Armenians had taken place, and toward 
them the Moslems still showed great bitterness. 
Many of the bazaars were closed, and in other 
bazaars the Armenians were found cowering behind 
their desks or counters. I had read that the superb 
mosaic of the face of Christ, in the lofty dome, was 
partly uncovered, as the plaster had been flaking 
off for some time. My dragoman warned me 
against attracting the attention of the excited Mos- 
lems by looking for Christian symbols. While my 
dragoman look the guardian of the mosque aside 
for a moment, I turned my glass to the dome, and 
there beheld in beautiful mosaic some features of 
the Christ now appearing to view, after having been 
so long hidden by plaster, because of the supersti- 
tion and hatred of the Moslems. Even Moslem 
fanaticism cannot forever hide the glorious face 
of the divine Christ. 

One purpose of creation and revelation is to un- 
veil the face of Christ. The heavens declare his 
glory, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. 
Creation is a revelation of God. The human soul 
cries out for God, and all forms of revelation are 
God's response to this universal cry. But, unfor- 
tunately, type and symbol, intended to reveal the 



12 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

Christ, often hide his face. To-day traditions, 
superstitions, rites, ceremonies, and creeds are fre- 
quently the plaster which covers the glorious face 
of the Son of God. One object of the ministry 
is to remove this plaster, and to reveal the Christ. 
This sublime service Isaiah performed as did no 
other writer of the Old Testament. His prophecies 
often seem more like histories than prophecies. The 
verses which immediately precede my text seem to 
be the dome of the temple of divine revelation. As 
we look upward to the dome of that temple, we 
seem to see the unveiled face of the Christ; and 
around that unveiled face we can read the sublime 
collocation of lofty titles of the Christ : " Wonder- 
ful," "Counsellor," " Mighty God," "Everlasting 
Father," " Prince of Peace." Thus the face and the 
names of the Christ are gloriously revealed. The 
text is a statement of the characteristics of the gov- 
ernment of the Messiah, whose august titles have 
just been pronounced. This is the ideal government 
for all the nations of the earth. 

A Personal Government. 

We discover, in the first place, that the Messiah's 
government is Personal. In the preceding verse, we 
are told that " the government shall be upon his 
shoulder." This statement implies that he, in his 
own person, should wear the royal purple. Perhaps 
it refers to some symbol of the government, such as 
a scepter, sword, or key, which should be borne 



THE CHRISTIC REIGN 1 3 

upon the shoulder. It is certain that Jesus rules 
this world; that his pierced hand is on the scepter 
of the universe, and that his will is law in heaven 
above and on earth beneath. God stands in per- 
sonal relations with creation and providence. He 
is immanent in his universe. God is not dead; 
neither is he asleep, nor on a journey. Jesus Christ 
has never abdicated his throne. No mandate of 
materialism can ever banish God from his universe. 
He walks amid his stars in sublime majesty; but he 
walks no less amid his grapevines and rose-bushes 
in creative power and ornative glory. He treads 
the Milky Way in unique splendor ; but no less does 
he the lowliest vales trodden by his humblest saints. 
The doctrine of the universality of law in no way 
militates against the idea of the universality of God's 
presence, and the continuity of God's activity in 
creation and providence. What do men mean by 
law, when they speak of law as governing the uni- 
verse? Men often speak of law as if it somehow 
were possessed of ; ersonality and potency in and 
of itself. So to speak of law is utterly to miscon- 
ceive law. Law, in this connection, is simply the 
name which we give to the manner in which we 
have observed some force to act. If the force is 
material, we have a physical law; if the force is 
mental, we have an intellectual law ; if the force is 
moral, we have a spiritual law. Law is not a force, 
but a form ; law is not a power, but a process ; law 
is not an actor, but an action; law is not an agent, 



14 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

but an agency. Back of the form, is the force ; back 
of the process, is the power; back of the action, is 
the actor; back of the agency, is the agent. At all 
these points stands God. Law implies a lawgiver; 
the lawgiver is God. Order implies an ordainer ; the 
ordainer is God. 

The doctrine of evolution, rightly understood, 
does not eliminate God. There may be an agnostic 
and even an atheistic evolution; but there may be 
also a theistic and even a Christie evolution. Noth- 
ing can be evolved which has not first been involved. 
The involver is God. Evolution may not be yet 
scientifically established, but we may at least receive 
the doctrine as a working hypothesis. A true con- 
ception of evolution, by putting God farther back 
in the scale of development, may add to his creative 
wisdom and his providential prescience. Jesus 
Christ is going before the nations to-day as he went 
before Israel of old, with pillar of cloud by day and 
fire by night. He has led the American people dur- 
ing the past few years, as truly as he led the Israel- 
ites under Moses and Joshua, or by David and Solo- 
mon. Loftier than all the thrones of earth, and 
mightier than all the scepters of czars, emperors, 
and kings, is the august throne, and is the resistless 
scepter of the Christ of God. 

A Progressive Government. 

We are distinctly informed, in the second place, 
that the Messiah's government is Progressive — " Of 



THE CHRISTIC REIGN 15 

the increase of his government there shall be no 
end." Nothing is more certain than that the domin- 
ion of Jesus Christ is to extend to the ends of the 
earth, and to every interest of the human race. 

It is impossible to overstate the apparent impo- 
tency of Christ's kingdom when he lay dead in 
Joseph's tomb. Nothing was more unlikely of ac- 
complishment than his command given on an un- 
known mountain to a handful of disciples to go out 
to secure the mastership of the world. They were 
men without an army, without a navy, and without 
any of the munitions of war. In giving that com- 
mand, Christ showed himself to be the foremost 
thinker of the world. Other founders of religion 
were ethnic, racial, or at most, only national in their 
sympathies and ambitions. Theirs was a religion 
for a locality, a race, or a cult ; but Jesus Christ, for 
the first time in human history, proclaimed a religion 
equally needed by, adapted to, and intended for all 
classes and conditions of men in all countries and 
centuries. Confucius, Zoroaster, and Buddha were 
provincial in sympathy, ambition, and endeavor. 
Even Judaism, notwithstanding its occasional un- 
limited outlook, became by the misinterpretations of 
its expounders, sectional, racial, and even provin- 
cial. A similar remark applies to the cults of classic 
Greece and Rome. Jesus Christ was the first great 
cosmopolitan thinker. He is unique in this respect, 
as in all respects, among the founders of religions ; 
he is, as the Germans say, " Der Einzige." 



l6 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

Away over the rocky hills of Palestine went the 
preachers of the glad tidings. Soon the islands of 
the ^Sgean became stepping-stones for the feet of 
" the sacramental host of God's elect." Ancient 
philosophies, hoary traditions, classic mythologies, 
all disappeared before the simple story of the cross. 
The cross battered down the walls of heathen er- 
ror; soon it became the symbol of victory on the 
banners of armies, and finally, Christ was recognized 
on the throne of the descendants of the Cassars. 

His government is progressive also, in that it 
contemplates introducing its spirit into every de- 
partment of human thought and life. We have 
seen in recent years a great extension of this spirit 
in art and science. The materialism of even a gen- 
eration ago has largely disappeared. Science, in 
great part, is becoming docile, dutiful, and reverent. 
The undevout scientist is disloyal to the funda- 
mental principles of true science ; indeed, he is only 
a sciolist and not a scientist. True scientism ever 
follows in the footsteps of divine truth. I claim the 
whole sphere of science and art for Jesus Christ. 
Agnosticism can write no immortal poetry. Endur- 
ing music is religious music. The operettas of the 
day are for the day. Mozart, Handel, Haydn, Bach, 
Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and other great musi- 
cians, and the immortal painters and sculptors, 
caught their inspiration from the divine Christ; 
only as men are so inspired can they sing, paint, 
and chisel for eternity. 



THE CHRISTIC REIGN VJ 

The government of Christ is progressive also in 
its territorial inclusion; the kingdoms of this world 
are to become the kingdoms of our Lord and his 
Christ. The heathen are to be given to him for his 
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth 
for his possession. The tumultuous nations which 
are seen in the Second psalm as taking counsel 
against the Lord — even these are to be the Mes- 
siah's inheritance. His kingdom shall stretch from 
the rivers unto the ends of the earth ; it shall reach 
from pole to pole. All kings shall bow down and 
worship him. All providences are hastening the 
fulfilment of these prophecies ; the eye of faith sees 
the banner of Immanuel above the flag of every 
nation. The gates of Tibet and the doors of Africa 
are wide open. Electricity is a spark from the 
Eternal Flame, and God will use it to illumine the 
world with the light of truth. The discoverers of 
modern science are the messengers of the Almighty. 

Just when destructive critics are casting doubt on 
the virgin birth of Christ, science comes forward 
with its theory of parthenogenesis. All true science 
is of God. In this science there are vast possibili- 
ties confirmatory of the divine-human birth. Just 
when men had denied the resurrection of Christ 
and man's immortality, there arose Sir William 
Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, Caesar Lombroso, 
Charles Richet, Dr. Joseph Maxwell, Wallace, 
James, and others, on both sides of the sea, trained 
scientists, who are aiming to prove scientifically 

B 



l8 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

the immortality of the soul and the reality of the 
spiritual world. These men are making spiritual 
realities easily believable. Science is becoming a 
stout witness for God. Science is really the porter 
of the presence-chamber of the Almighty. 

There has also been great progress in the formu- 
lation of theological truths. We have learned that 
long and so-called strong creeds do not conserve 
true Christian doctrine. The so-called Apostles' 
Creed the apostles never saw, never heard, and pos- 
sibly, would not fully endorse. The last apostle 
was centuries in heaven before that creed, in its 
present form, was promulgated. The Nicene Creed 
was a compromise of such fiercely warring church- 
men, that Constantine was obliged to send soldiers 
to quell their riots. The Athanasian Creed Athana- 
sius never wrote, and the use of his name in con- 
nection with it is a case of abominable dishonesty. 
Its " damnatory clauses " ought never to be attached 
to any human composition. The Sunday when it is 
recited in the Anglican churches is called " Damna- 
tion Sunday." Augustinianism and Calvinism, with 
their doctrine of election and consequent reproba- 
tion, together with the idea that infant baptism was 
necessary to infant salvation, made Colonel Ingersoll 
an atheist. Such doctrines are the alma mater of 
atheism every day. We are better able to make 
creeds to-day than ever were men in the past. We 
have learned much since the days of Augustine, 
Turretin, Calvin, Luther, and Bunyan. Creeds 






THE CHRISTIC REIGN 19 

made by men in one generation can be remade or 
unmade by men in another generation. Creeds are 
the procrustean bed for the torture of theological 
thinkers. It is easier to interpret the Scriptures on 
which the creeds are supposed to be founded, than 
to interpret the creeds. Baptists occupy an enviable 
position ; the word of God is their only rule of faith 
and practice. This word has an ever-enlarging sig- 
nificance, making it the contemporary of all ages. 

Nothing is more certain than that the govern- 
ment of Christ shall be progressive, until all kings, 
all governments, all sciences, and all arts shall find 
their noblest ambitions and their loftiest achieve- 
ments in lying in lowliest reverence at the pierced 
feet of Jesus Christ. 

A Peaceful Government. 

The Messiah's government is a Peaceful Gov- 
ernment. Among the sublime titles given to the 
Messiah in the preceding verse of this chapter, no 
title is more suggestive than " The Prince of Peace." 
It must be admitted that often the incidental result 
of the preaching of Christ is not harmony, but 
discord. He taught us that his gospel would set 
members of families against one another, so that 
a man's foes should be they of his own household. 
For this discord, however, Christian faith is not 
responsible; it is caused by the fact that error is 
blind, bigotry is pitiless, and sin is cruel. It is better 
that there should be discord than a hollow peace 



20 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

without righteousness, and with injustice and serf- 
dom. Douglas Jerrold spoke the truth when he said, 
" We love peace as we abhor pusillanimity ; but not 
peace at any price. . . Chains are worse than 
bayonets." Theodore Roosevelt was right when he 
emphasized, in his letter to the recent Peace Con- 
gress in New York, the importance of peace with 
honor and righteousness. Christ as the Prince of 
Peace brings the soul into harmony with God. Sin 
separates us from our Father in heaven. It inevit- 
ably produces condemnation on his part, and con- 
sternation on our part. It ends in complete aliena- 
tion between God and man. In Christ the lost 
harmony is restored; and being justified by faith, 
we have peace with God. Christ restores harmony 
within our own souls. Sin is the great troubler of 
the human heart. It arrays against one another con- 
science and passion, reason and desire, all noble 
loves and all ignoble lusts. When Christ comes 
into the heart, the true order of affections and de- 
sires is established. He resets the entire spiritual 
nature; all spiritual powers then take their rightful 
positions and discharge their appropriate functions. 
The moment he is admitted to the heart there is a 
great calm throughout the whole nature, and men 
experience divine rest in their deepest souls. 

Christ brings peace into the social and industrial 
world. In him all ambitions are sanctified, and all 
endeavors celestialized. When the Golden Rule is 
dominant, conflicts between capital and labor will 



THE CHRISTIC REIGN 21 

cease. Capital will then be just and considerate, 
and labor then will be honest and efficient. Love 
is mightier than law. The Golden Rule will make 
strikes an impossibility. Its dominance will make 
the Eastern sky radiant with the crimson and gold 
of millennial dawn. Christ, as the Prince of Peace, 
will establish harmony among all the nations of the 
earth. International arbitration will then settle all 
international disputes. After their terrible expendi- 
ture of treasure and blood on land and sea, Russia 
and Japan at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, by com- 
promise, conciliation, and concession, settled their 
painful conflict. How much wiser had they met 
for such settlement before they fired a gun or sacri- 
ficed a life ! The foolishness of war is as conspicu- 
ous as its wickedness. The time has come when 
we should learn that " the man on horseback " is 
not necessarily the greatest of heroes. The man 
who preserves life, as physician, philanthropist, dis- 
coverer, educator, and preacher, may be a truer hero 
than the man who destroys life in battle. The 
world is much in need of new ideals of manliness 
and heroism. Patriotism may be as truly mani- 
fested at the ballot-box as on the battlefield. It is 
time that we learned to say with Milton: 

Peace hath her victories, 
No less renowned than war. 

The time is coming when the words of Micah 
shall be literally fulfilled, the time when the nations 



22 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

" shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their 
spears into pruning-hooks ; nation shall not lift up 
a sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
war any more." The Hague Tribunal is here, and 
here to stay. Its achievements during the past few 
years have far surpassed the hopes of its most en- 
thusiastic supporters. The recent Peace Congress 
in New York was an epoch-making event. Edward 
VII, the Emperor of Germany, and the President of 
the United States are all laudably ambitious to take 
their places among the great peacemakers of the 
world. The interdependence of nations now is such, 
that any nation that unjustly breaks the peace, 
merits the rebuke, and will receive the contempt and 
ostracism of all civilized nations. The day is com- 
ing when the song of the angels which echoed over 
the plains of Bethlehem the night that the Christ 
was born, shall be realized throughout the civilized 
world : " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
peace, good will toward men." Then, indeed, Christ 
will be enthroned as Prince of Peace. 

A Prerogative Government. 

This government is a Prerogative Government; 
Christ is to sit " upon the throne of David " ; it 
belongs to him as his exclusive or peculiar privilege. 
He holds it by prior and indefeasible right. His 
right to it may be asserted without question; and 
he is not called upon to account for the manner of 
its exercise. He is seated upon the throne of David. 



THE CHRISTIC REIGN 23 

His claim to this throne is in accordance with the 
promise made to David, and frequently repeated by 
prophets and psalmists. The Messiah was to reign 
over the people of God in all lands and at all times ; 
he was to order and establish his throne with judg- 
ment and justice; and his administration was to be 
just and righteous. Most of the kingdoms of the 
earth have been established by iniquity, but the ad- 
ministration of the Messiah is to be extended and 
perpetuated in righteousness. 

This truth it is impossible for us unduly to em- 
phasize. All workers in the kingdom of God know 
that they are serving a just Master, and that they 
are laboring in harmony with eternal righteousness. 
In Christ it is eternally true that " righteousness 
and peace have kissed each other." He is a king 
reigning in righteousness, having magnified the law 
and made it honorable. There is thus every encour- 
agement to labor and to pray for the universal ex- 
tension of this prerogative government. A mission- 
ary church is in harmony with the eternal purpose 
of God. He demands our help in the establishment 
of the Messiah's reign. It is the glory of the church 
that it be a fellow-worker with Christ in the exten- 
sion of his kingdom. To extend this kingdom is the 
ultimate purpose of all the forces of modern civili- 
zation. For thus purpose ships are built, railways 
constructed, telegraph lines erected, and wireless 
telegraphy was discovered. For this purpose men 
become millionaires. Money finds its true use when 



24 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

laid on the altar of Jesus Christ. Why has not 
some man given millions of dollars for mission 
work in heathen lands? Are not educational insti- 
tutions in heathen lands as needed as in Christian 
lands? Why has not some man founded great 
academies, colleges, and universities in Japan, 
China, and India? Who will have the honor of 
leading in this work? When will the man come 
forward who will make his name immortal by lay- 
ing millions on God's altar for foreign missions? 
Thus may God's true children truly honor the pre- 
rogative government of the Lord's Christ. 

A Perpetual Government. 

The Messiah's government is a Perpetual Gov- 
ernment. In the great mosque standing in the midst 
of a spacious quadrangle in Damascus, the oldest 
city of the world, a mosque larger than the historic 
mosque of Omar in Jerusalem, there still stands, as 
if in defiance of the crescent which long has usurped 
the place of the cross, this noble inscription above 
the principal door : " Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an 
everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endures 
throughout all generations." This inscription is 
prophetic, not only of the day when Jesus shall 
reign over the hearts of the Damascenes, but when 
he shall reign over all men of all climes, creeds, and 
colors. It is strange, indeed, that Moslem fanati- 
cism should have allowed this inscription to remain 
over the principal door of this consecrated mosque. 



THE CHRISTIC REIGN 25 

We are distinctly informed that the reign of the 
Messiah will be " from henceforth even forever." 
We are assured also that " the zeal of the Lord of 
hosts will perform this." In connection with the 
text, it is affirmed that the Messiah is the Father of 
Eternity. He is from everlasting to everlasting; he 
is the origin of all being. He will have no rival and 
can have no successor. His servants must labor for 
the establishment of his kingdom until the utmost 
limits of the earth and the last moments of time 
are reached. His name is to be praised from the 
rising of the sun until the going down of the same. 
His government can never be superseded by a 
higher and better dominion ; and against it the gates 
of hades can never prevail. Its triumph means lib- 
erty and law, peace and prosperity, civilization and 
Christianity. It means the universal recognition of 
the fatherhood of God, and so of the brotherhood of 
man. We are assured that the zeal of God is 
pledged to this result. The Lord Jehovah has pur- 
posed to establish the kingdom of his Messiah on the 
earth. Right is eternal, and will certainly prevail. 
The long and weary night of sorrow and sin will 
give place to the dawn of a glorious day of peace, 
purity, and joy. This government is the unifier of 
all the antagonistic interests in industrial, civil, 
political, and religious life. In Christ all conflicts 
cease, and in him all blessings have their origin. In 
his dominance, the dream of Burns shall be literally 
realized : 



26 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

Then let us pray that come it may, 

As come it will for a' that, 
That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, 

May bear the gree, and a' that, 
For a' that, and a' that, 

It's coming yet, for a' that, 
That man to man the world o'er, 

Shall brithers be for a' that. 

To the thought of God the world is a vast cathe- 
dral. The eye of faith sees in its lofty dome the 
face of Christ as creator, preserver, redeemer, and 
king. Creation is revelation; it is the unveiling of 
the hand and, to some degree also, of the heart of 
God. Preservation is continuous creation, reveal- 
ing God's wisdom, power, and love. Revelation is a 
fuller display of all the attributes of the Almighty. 
There is no contradiction between natural and re- 
vealed religion; rightly understood, nature and the 
supernatural are in perfect harmony. To God noth- 
ing is supernatural ; to us the supernatural becomes 
natural when we master the laws which God em- 
ploys in the governance of his universe. The uni- 
verse is a universe. Theologians have done unspeak- 
able harm when they have thought that they were 
honoring the God of revelation in proportion as they 
minimized the God of creation. The written Bible, 
or the Bible of Scripture, is in perfect harmony with 
the unwritten bible, or the bible of nature. The 
God of Scripture and the God of nature is one God. 
God speaks to us in his twofold Bible of Scripture 
and of nature. This thought the church has largely 



THE CHRISTIC REIGN 2.J 

forgotten; had the church remembered this truth, 
there would be less infidelity in the academy and 
more faith in the church. 

Undevout science, unscientific religion, tradition, 
infidelity, bigotry, and superstition have drawn veils 
over the face of Jesus Christ, both as Creator and 
as Redeemer. In every great religious reformation, 
some of these veils have been removed. The high- 
est duty of religion and science to-day is to unveil 
the face of God in Jesus Christ. When this glorious 
face is unveiled, we shall hear the divine Christ say 
to us, as he said to Philip, " He that hath seen me, 
hath seen the Father." The vision of the revealed 
Christ is a foretaste of heaven. The day is coming 
when we shall see him face to face, shall know him 
even as we are known, and shall be like him in his 
spotless purity, radiant glory, and divine effulgence. 
This will be heaven in its ineffable blessedness, its 
hallowed experiences and its divine revelations. In 
this renewed earth Christ shall reign without an 
enemy, and all his ideals shall be realized. In that 
blessed day our ambitions shall be so spiritualized, 
and our characters so celestialized that we shall be- 
come like unto his own glorious Person as Son of 
man and Son of God ! 



II 

TfiE BASILIC PSALM 

Text: The Second psalm. 

EVEN the cursory reader of the Second psalm 
discovers that it is a dramatic poem of a high 
order. Like the First psalm, it is without any title, 
and without any indication of its authorship. But 
in the Acts of the Apostles 4 : 25, it is distinctly 
affirmed that David is its author. This is the com- 
mon opinion among Hebrew writers regarding its 
origin ; and the character of the poem is in harmony 
with this supposition. The great design of the 
psalm is to foretell the hatred of men to the person 
and reign of the Lord's anointed, the glories of this 
Messiah, the downfall of his enemies, and the cer- 
tain triumph of his kingdom. It is the first of the 
prophetic psalms in which the promise made to 
David, with respect to the Messiah, is wrought into 
the lyrical devotions of the ancient church. Some 
writers affirm that there is no connection in thought, 
nor similarity in structure, between the First and 
the Second psalms ; but a closer investigation shows 
that there is a genuine affinity between these two 
poems; indeed, they have sometimes been written 
as one psalm. The number of verses and stanzas 
28 



THE BASILIC PSALM 20, 

in the Second psalm is just double those of the 
First. The Second begins, as the First ends, with a 
threatening; and the Second ends, as the First 
begins, with a beatitude. The First is an introduc- 
tion to the Second; and we shall not err in saying 
that both the First and Second are really an intro- 
duction to the entire Psalter. 

Perowne calls attention to the fact that the Second 
psalm rings with the tramp of gathering armies, 
and with the notes of lofty challenge, addressed by 
the poet to the invaders of his country. He sug- 
gests that the poem was written when Jerusalem 
was threatened by a confederacy of hostile powers ; 
and that these hostile powers were vassal mon- 
archs. He infers from the language which the 
poet puts into their mouths, " Let us break their 
bands asunder," that these allies had been subdued 
in earlier wars, and that they were now seizing an 
opportunity to assert their former independence. 
The song was probably written when the news of 
their approach reached Jerusalem; and the poet de- 
sires to encourage his countrymen to cherish hopes 
of victory by remembering the covenant made with 
David's house. 

Interpreters constantly attempt to discover the 
historic events which occasioned the poem. It can 
very naturally be connected with the history re- 
corded in second Samuel, tenth chapter. We there 
find a confederacy of Syrians, Ammonites, and 
others who had formerly been subdued, and who 



30 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

were now struggling for the restoration of their in- 
dependence. But we must bear in mind that, al- 
though the poem was occasioned by some great na- 
tional event, we are not to limit its application to 
any one event in the history of Israel. The author 
must have felt that his words, in their ultimate ap- 
plication, were quite beyond the occasion which led 
him to write the poem. Beginning with an earthly 
king, and with wars upon the earth, his words rise 
beyond earthly to heavenly conflicts and conquests; 
thus the local is swallowed up in the universal, and 
the temporal in the eternal. The king who sits on 
David's throne is only suggestive of Him who sits 
on the throne of the universe, and reigns over all 
the nations of the earth. The poem is thus con- 
nected with the present only as it is typical and pro- 
phetical of the future. The true king is the uni- 
versal and eternal Ruler over the nations of the 
earth, enthroned in heavenly glory. 

In its construction, the psalm is one of the most 
perfect in the Psalter, according to the recognized 
rules of Hebrew poetry. It naturally falls into four 
stanzas, or strophes, of three verses each. It is 
throughout a perfect drama. It could readily be 
dramatized, as the action is carried on by different 
speakers who take their parts in order. In the first 
stanza, or strophe, the conduct of the rebellious 
nations is described; in the second, we have the 
reply of God both by word and deed ; in the third, 
the Anointed One appears declaring the divine de- 



THE BASILIC PSALM 3 1 

cree in relation to himself ; and in the last, the psalm- 
ist exhorts the rulers to submit to the authority of 
Jehovah, threatening divine wrath to the disobe- 
dient, and promising a benediction to all who submit 
to divine authority. 

Tumultuous Assembly of the Nations — The 
First Strophe, Verses 1-3. 

In verses 1-3, we have a view of the tumultuous 
nations. The opening of the psalm is bold and ab- 
rupt. The writer looks out suddenly on the nations 
and sees them in violent commotion. They are dis- 
covered while engaged in a deep plot against the 
plans of Jehovah and his Anointed One. They are 
united in their counsels, and are determined to 
break asunder the bands of God's authority. They 
are resolved to prevent the establishment of the 
Anointed as king on the holy hill of Zion. The 
psalm thus opens with an abrupt question character- 
istic of true lyric poetry. Horace gives us examples 
of a similar style, while gazing on spectacles of civil 
strife. Its opening word is expressive of astonish- 
ment and indignation at the wickedness and folly 
of those who oppose Jehovah. The scene, as it is 
presented to us in the first verse, is in the distance. 
We behold the warring peoples, and we hear the 
rumbling sound of their wrath, as the noise of the 
roaring sea. As these rebels first appear to us, noth- 
ing more than a confused condition is presented. 
The " Why " in this verse implies that it is impos- 



32 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

sible to give a rational solution to the insensate op- 
position which these warring peoples are making 
to Jehovah and his Anointed. There is indignant 
astonishment in the question. 

It would be difficult to overstate the impressive- 
ness of this first part of this first scene. It is evi- 
dent that irrationality could not go further than it 
has gone, in the opposition which these nations are 
making against Jehovah. Why are these nations in 
rebellion? Why do they attempt to throw off the 
yoke of the true king? Is he a tyrant against whom 
they are rebelling? Not so. They are insurgents 
against Jehovah in the person of him whom Jehovah 
has enthroned. The word rage is in Hebrew ra- 
gash; it is expressive of violent commotion. It is 
not found elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures, al- 
though there is a corresponding Chaldee word 
found in Daniel. The word with which this is ren- 
dered in Greek, Acts 4:25, denotes restiveness, as 
of horses that neigh, prance, and rush into battle 
But the raging of the nations, notwithstanding theii 
deliberate determination, is vanity itself. No oppo- 
sition to God, by whomsoever exercised, can pros- 
per. In Acts 4 : 27, 28, we have the words, " For 
of a truth in this city against thy holy Servant 
Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod and 
Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples 
of Israel, were gathered together, to do whatsoever 
thy hand and thy counsel foreordained to come to 
pass." In these words, we have a striking illustra- 



THE BASILIC PSALM 33 



tion of the truth taught in the description of the 
tumultuous rulers. These rebels against God de- 
sired to rid themselves of all restraint. Their 
wicked undertaking is groundless and reasonless. 
They supposed they could burst the bands of Om- 
nipotence, as if they were ropes of sand. Many 
monarchs since that day have imitated their ex- 
ample, only to learn the utter folly of all forms 
of opposition against the Almighty. 

In the second verse, we are brought nearer to 
these raging nations, or they are brought nearer 
to us. The confused scene presented in the first 
verse, now becomes much more distinct. We dis- 
cover, in this verse, that the rebels against God are 
kings and rulers of the earth. We discover also 
that they have determinedly set themselves in oppo- 
sition to the Almighty. They are not acting thought- 
lessly, but deliberately ; they are consulting together 
in order to make their opposition to the Almighty 
the more effective. This fact adds greatly to the 
force of the entire scene. We discover also, in this 
nearer view, the object of their insensate wrath; 
it is against Jehovah and his Anointed. 

In the third verse, we are brought still closer to 
these tumultuous and rebellious nations. We are 
now able to distinguish their words as they express 
their determination to break the bands of the 
Almighty, and to cast away his cords. We thus 
overhear their consultations. The word translated 
cords really means twisted ropes, and it is a 
c 



34 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

stronger term than the one translated bands. The 
verb here employed means more than the mere act 
of breaking; it suggests the additional idea of con- 
temptuous facility in flinging away the bonds of the 
Almighty; it is expressive of the utter scorn enter- 
tained by these rebellious nations for what they 
deemed the feeble forces of Jehovah. The figure 
comes from the effort of restive animals to throw 
off the yoke. The entire scene is as fully descriptive 
of many opponents of God in the world to-day, as it 
was an accurate presentation of enemies in the days 
of the psalmist or the Messiah. 

The Deriding Jehovah — The Second Strophe, 
Verses 4-6. 

The fourth verse begins the second strophe, or 
stanza, of the psalm. A scene of unparalleled sub- 
limity is now presented. We have seen in the dis- 
tance, and then nearer at hand, the tumultuous 
nations ; we have heard the expression of their con- 
temptuous resolution to burst the bonds, and to cast 
away the cords of the Almighty. Our minds have 
been filled with the reality, and at the same time, 
the vanity, the malice, and the futility of their oppo- 
sition to the Omnipotent One. Now the curtain 
lifts. The scene presented fills us with holy awe, 
and with sublime conceptions of the dignity, maj- 
esty, and glory of the great God. He is seen seated 
in the heavens far above and beyond the malice of 
all his foes. On the everlasting throne sits the 



THE BASILIC PSALM 35 

almighty King, in whose sight nations and kings 
are but a drop in the bucket. In unapproachable 
majesty and eternal glory he is enthroned above all 
his foes. On earth, all was noise, confusion, and 
malice ; in the sublime abode of the Almighty, 
all is peace, majesty, power, glory, sublimity, and 
divinity. 

It is very suggestive as we glance at the opening 
of this scene into the secret place of the majesty of 
the Most High, to discover that the Almighty is sit- 
ting. We thus behold the reposeful dignity of the 
Omnipotent One. Sometimes God is described as 
awaking, as bestirring himself ; but while he is pour- 
ing out his contempt upon the rebellious princes 
and peoples, he does not take the trouble to rise. 
He knows how utterly irrational and futile is their 
opposition, and he remains sitting while he indulges 
in laughter, and subjects them to derision. The 
further description here given us of God is almost 
startling; he is described as laughing. Can God 
laugh? Does God laugh? Is it possible for us to 
retain our exalted conceptions of God as the high 
and holy One, and yet think of him as seated on his 
lofty throne, and laughing at the weakness and 
wickedness of men? We are told that Cato, in his 
conceptions of the dignity that ought to belong to 
Roman consuls, affirmed that laughter on their part 
was utterly unbecoming. But here laughter is at- 
tributed to the Majesty of Heaven. The very shock 
which this conception of God may give us, adds to 



36 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

the unspeakable folly of men in their opposition to 
the Almighty. The follies of sinners furnish just 
sport to God's infinite wisdom and power. The at- 
tempts of the kingdom of Satan, which seem for- 
midable to us, are simply despicable to God. Sin 
.is insanity. Only fools say that there is no God. 
Atheism and insanity are closely akin. 

Of course, we must understand that the poet 
describes God in a manner which we can under- 
stand, describes him according to the manner and 
conceptions of men. Pharaoh imagined that by 
drowning the Israelite male children, he could root 
out the Israelites from the kingdom. His folly was 
sufficient cause for laughter on the part of God. 
God does not need to smite his foes ; he needs only 
to laugh at them, and they are overthrown. He 
smites while he smiles. The poor, puny efforts of 
Satan and his hosts do not create uneasiness or 
fear on the part of God. Their utter impotency 
excites his extreme derision. It surely is thus a 
vain thing to strive with the glorious Majesty of 
Heaven. Later, in the same verse, we are told that 
Jehovah shall have them in derision. Luther asks, 
" Who thought when Christ suffered, and the Jews 
triumphed, that God was laughing all the time ? " 
This is a tremendously bold anthropomorphism, but 
beneath it there is hidden a profound truth; to all 
superior beings and, par excellence, to God, sin is 
not only extremely odious, but it is utterly absurd. 
It evokes contempt on the part of the highest be- 



THE BASILIC PSALM 37 

ings, alike for its impotency and its wickedness; it 
is supremely silly. 

While we gaze upon this startling scene, repre- 
senting God indulging in laughter and derision, we 
are permitted to hear him speak. His enemies 
spoke to one another against him; now he speaks 
unto them in his wrath. The laughter was but the 
prelude to active opposition to them on the part of 
the Almighty. They may not escape from his severe 
rebuke. His seeming indifference will not last for- 
ever; he will not always calmly and derisively ob- 
serve their opposition, but he will at length utterly 
confound them with the breath of his lips. Luther, 
in his " Ein' Feste Burg," echoes the thought of the 
psalmist : 

And though this world, with demons filled, 

Should threaten to undo us, 
We will not fear, for God hath willed 
His truth to triumph through us. 
The Prince of darkness grim, 
We tremble not for him; 
His rage we can endure, 
For lo! his doom is sure: 
One little word shall fell him. 

As we heard the words spoken by the rebels ex- 
pressive of their opposition to the Almighty, we are 
now to hear the very words of the Almighty in his 
determination to oppose the decision of these rebels : 
" Yet," or better, " But have I set my King upon 
my holy hill of Zion." We have here the central 



38 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

truth of the psalm. The pronoun " I " is empha- 
sized in the Hebrew. These words are here invest- 
ed with awful majesty and clothed with resistless 
power. They are God's answer to the defiance of 
his foes. It is as if the Almighty had said, " Go 
on with your opposition; defy my power as ye may; 
join hand to hand as you choose; utter your most 
defiant threats against me and mine Anointed; but 
/ " — thus God shows the futility of all their plans. 
They had their plans, and God had his plans. 
Really, the work of setting his King upon Zion's 
hill has already been accomplished. This state- 
ment is sublime beyond expression. While his ene- 
mies are proposing, he has already disposed the en- 
tire matter. They fret and rave in vain, because his 
will is supreme. Mr. Spurgeon finely says, " God's 
Anointed is appointed, and shall not be disap- 
pointed." All through the ages of history, this truth 
has found its illustration. Jesus as the Messiah, 
evermore sees of the travail of his soul, and is satis- 
fied. He reigns to-day on the throne of the uni- 
verse. In his pierced hand is the scepter of unlim- 
ited power. Our glad lips chant the praises of the 
Prince of Peace. Glorious things are spoken of our 
King! Sublime as have been his triumphs in the 
past, sublimer triumphs await him in the near 
future. 

How dreadful have been the persecutions of 
pagan and papal Rome! But all the rage of men 
was impotence itself; it was as if a man should at- 



THE BASILIC PSALM 39 

tempt to snatch the sun from the firmament, or as 
if an infant attempted to stay the whirlwind. The 
moon shall not cease to move forward in the heavens 
in queenly majesty, even though the dogs bark at 
its brightness. The mountains shall melt in God's 
presence, and the sea before him shall flee. Sin- 
ners will be speechless in the presence of the Al- 
mighty. Who can stay the hand of Jehovah? He 
has placed the King on the holy hill of Zion. What- 
ever opposition men may make, it is bsolutely cer- 
tain that the Anointed One will be King in heaven, 
on earth, and under the earth, and that to him every 
knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that 
he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

The Messiah Declaring the Decree — The 
Third Strophe, Verses 7-9. 

We now come to the third stanza, strophe, or act 
in this sublime and divine drama. We have looked 
upon the warring nations ; we have also gazed upon 
the exalted throne of the Almighty; we have ob- 
served his derision, and we have heard his divine 
declaration regarding the placing of his King on the 
holy hill of Zion. We now behold the Anointed 
One, as he declares his rights of unlimited authority 
over the rebels against his throne and person. The 
Messiah himself now speaks. To him we had full 
and sublime reference in the earlier parts of the 
psalm. Now he appears in his grandeur and glory, 
declaring the purpose formed in the counsels of 



40 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

eternity regarding himself. The first stanza closed 
with the words of the insurgents, the second with 
the words of the Lord, and the third gives us the 
language of the King already introduced. Nothing 
could be more dramatic than the introduction of the 
Messiah as the speaker in this third act. The Son, 
the Anointed King, now proclaims the Father's 
counsel concerning himself. There is not the slight- 
est doubt that the pronoun " I " here refers to the 
Messiah. It is as if the Messiah, looking into the 
angry faces of the rebellious vassals, hurls his dec- 
laration, " I will declare the decree." We cannot 
help discovering that there is a striking proof of the 
divinity of the Messiah in the words, " Thou art 
my Son; this day have I begotten thee." We are 
not told when nor where Jehovah made this decla- 
ration to the Messiah; but it certainly was made 
before the outbreak of these rebels. Christ was 
declared to be the Son of God with power in his 
resurrection. Christ's resurrection day was his 
coronation day. Then it was manifested, in a dis- 
tinct and peculiar sense, that he was the Son of God 
with power. The filiation of Christ is an inexpli- 
cable mystery; it is not necessary here even to at- 
tempt an explanation. Most striking is the affirma- 
tion here : " the heathen for thine inheritance." It is 
thus declared that these very rebels are a part of 
his possession. They are, at this moment, in his 
power, and are yet to become subject to his au- 
thority. The Messiah will be a destroyer to those 



THE BASILIC PSALM 41 

who refuse to accept his sway. In one of his own 
parables, we have the words, " Those mine enemies 
which would not that I should reign over them, 
bring hither and slay before me." God does not de- 
light in the death of the sinner; but neither does 
God's mercy destroy God's justice. His mercy, if 
refused, makes his justice the more certain and 
terrible. In the First psalm, the ungodly are driven 
away like chaff ; but in the Second, they are dashed 
in pieces like a potter's vessel. Who can withstand 
the just wrath of the Almighty? Who can make 
headway against him? 

The Anointed One will have possession of the ut- 
termost parts of the earth; the most distant regions 
of the world will own his sway. The progress of 
events to-day is rapidly fulfilling this prophecy. All 
the discoveries of modern science are in harmony 
with these ancient predictions. Railways, steam- 
ships, and telegraphs are the servants of the 
Almighty. Electricity is the swift angel of Jehovah. 
Wireless telegraphy is the agent of the Almighty. 
Modern science has made the world a whispering 
gallery, and God is making it vocal with his praise 
and radiant with his glory. The " Cape-to-Cairo " 
railway will obliterate many traces of the " Dark 
Continent " ; soon there will be no dark continent on 
the globe. A new era has dawned upon the nations 
of the earth. God is making the wrath of man to 
praise him, and the genius of man to declare his 
glory. 



42 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 



The Psalmist Exhorting the Rebels — The 
Fourth Strophe, Verses 10-12. 

The original dramatic structure of the psalm is 
still retained, and the language of this portion is 
doubtless that of the psalmist. He here exhorts, 
warns, and entreats the rulers and princes, who 
have already been presented to us as engaged in 
opposition to Jehovah and his Anointed, to submit 
and to be saved. In these words, there is a sudden 
change of manner and an abrupt transition to the 
tone of earnest admonition. This exhortation is 
clearly addressed to the characters presented to us 
in the very first scene of this drama, and to kings 
and to all others in general. We cannot but ob- 
serve that the destroying power of the Messiah, 
which is mentioned in the preceding verses, he pos- 
sesses to help rather than to hurt the children of 
men. That element in his character is simply intro- 
ductory to the tenderer elements of his providence 
and government. This is a very sweet thought in 
this entire connection. The Messiah possesses 
power in order that he may win men to his service, 
and that thus they may escape his wrath. Kings 
and judges are here the subjects of exhortation. 

Fear is to be mingled with true service of Jeho- 
vah, and trembling with rejoicing in that service. 
It thus comes to pass that the poem closes with an 
exhortation to kiss the Son, lest he be angry and 
the people perish. Kissing was an ancient mode of 



THE BASILIC PSALM 43 

doing homage or giving allegiance to a king. We 
know that even now in European courts kissing the 
hand, or a portion of the robe, is indicative of def- 
erence paid to authority. In the psalm, there may 
be an allusion to the kiss as a religious act among 
the heathen. It is interesting to observe the beau- 
tiful beatitude with which the psalm closes, " Blessed 
are all they that put their trust in him." No words 
of tongue or pen are more exactly true than these. 
Kings, princes, and peoples, men of every century 
and every country, men of every color, rank, and 
condition, are truly blessed when they put their trust 
in the Lord God, and serve him with all their hearts. 
All men need him as Friend and Saviour ; all who 
thus trust him are safe in time and in eternity. This 
is the great truth which is taught everywhere in the 
Bible ; and one of the chief duties of the pulpit is to 
induce the children of men, in their weakness and 
wickedness, to put their trust in the Son of God as 
Saviour and Lord. 

The exhortation of the psalmist will never cease 
to be appropriate so long as kings and judges among 
men are rebellious toward God. Had the rulers in 
Christ's day listened to this exhortation, Jerusalem 
had not been destroyed, and the Jews trampled 
under the feet of Roman power. Had Julian the 
Apostate listened to this exhortation, he had not 
died, according to the tradition, exclaiming, " Thou 
hast conquered, O Galilean ! " Had the authorities 
of the kingdom of Spain and of the Church of Rome 



44 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

listened to this exhortation, the Inquisition had not 
been erected in Spain, nor planted at awful cost of 
blood in the Netherlands. Hadst thou listened, O 
Tomas de Torquemada, thou hadst not been the 
inquisitor-general of the Inquisition, and hadst 
not received thy immortality of scorn and condem- 
nation. Had Charles V obeyed this exhortation, he 
would not have attempted to erect an empire on the 
grave of liberty. Had he listened, he would not 
have charged his son, the pitiless Philip II, on the 
twenty-fifth of October, 1555, in the historic hall of 
the palace in Brussels, the gay capital of Brabant, 
when he abdicated his throne and gave to his son 
one-half the world, to establish the " Holy Inquisi- 
tion," saying to him, " So shall you have my bless- 
ing, and the Lord shall prosper all your under- 
takings." Had Charles IX of France obeyed the 
injunction of the psalmist, he had not, with his 
satanic mother, Catherine de Medici, permitted the 
massacre of Saint Bartholomew ; and so he had not 
suffered the awful agonies which drove the blood 
through the pores of his skin as he was in the hour 
and article of death. 

Be wise now, O Czar of Russia, and not arouse 
the spirit of bloody revolution in thy vast empire. 
It is possible for thee to win an immortal name 
among the great liberators of history; and so to 
take thy place by the side of Alexander II, the 
czar liberator of Russia. Be wise now, O brutal 
King of the Belgians, and not longer stain hand and 



THE BASILIC PSALM 45 

soul with the blood of mutilated and slaughtered 
Africans in the valley of the Congo. Be wise now, 
O Pope of Rome, come out of the sixteenth cen- 
tury into the twentieth, and do not attempt to 
trample the liberties of France into the dust of the 
crumbling barriers and the awful cruelties of the 
Middle Ages. Thy throne is even now tottering 
toward its enfeeblement, if not its utter overthrow. 
A new day has dawned on all the nations of the 
earth. Central and South America are feeling the 
throb of the spirit of liberty which marks the 
opening of the twentieth century. The power of 
superstition, ignorance, tyranny, and bigotry, which 
have marked the domination of the Roman Church 
in all these countries, is giving way to the light and 
liberty of our modern life. Even nations long in 
the bondage of Roman superstition and bigotry now 
stand on tiptoe, with the blended light of modern 
civilization and a reformed Christianity falling on 
their upturned faces. 

Be wise now, O ye leaders of heathenism, in all 
its forms. Know that the spirit of Christianity is 
pervading the philosophy, the literature, and even 
the religion of all the nations that long have sat in 
darkness and in the shadow of death. Do ye not 
hear Japan's " Banzai " that is echoing over China, 
Siam, and Korea? Do ye not see, above the ban- 
ners of every nation, the light raying out from the 
cross of the Lord's Anointed? Can ye not hear 
Hawaii's "Aloha " echoing: across the Pacific to 



46 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

Japan, China, Ceylon, and India? Do ye not hear 
India's " Salaam " blending with Hawaii's " Aloha," 
and thus rolling across continent and ocean to Great 
Britain, thence over the Atlantic to America, and so 
back to Hawaii? Thus the song of peace and love 
encircles the globe; thus the benediction which fell 
upon the plains of Bethlehem, the night the Christ 
was born, falls upon all the nations of the earth 
where the glorious gospel is proclaimed. 

There are now no hermit nations. Christianity 
rules the world. It is the hope of the future. All 
nations must bow to Jesus Christ. Our nobler 
civilization is the fruit of his Passion; and this 
civilization is, in turn, the inspiration to nobler 
endeavors in the years to come. The Eastern 
sky is radiant with the crimson and gold of 
a brighter day than has ever yet dawned for 
the nations of the earth. More will be achieved 
in missions at home and abroad during the first 
quarter of the twentieth century than during all of 
the nineteenth century. We can say, with the elo- 
quent J. M. Mason : " The days roll rapidly on, when 
the shout of the isles shall swell the thunder of the 
continent ; when the Thames and the Danube, when 
the Tiber and the Rhine shall call upon the Eu- 
phrates, the Ganges, and the Nile; and the loud 
concert shall be joined by the Hudson, the Missis- 
sippi, and the Amazon, singing with one heart and 
one voice, 'Alleluiah! Salvation! The Lord God 
Omnipotent reigneth ! ' " 



Ill 

THE PROMISEFUL PRESENCE 

Text: And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, 
the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am the 
Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And 
I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will 
multiply thee exceedingly. — Gen. 17 : 1, 2. 

WE are all familiar with the fact that God 
spoke in divers ways to holy men of old. 
God is a sovereign, unlimited in power, and infinite 
in wisdom. He adopts different methods of com- 
munication with man, according to the differing 
circumstances in each case. In the case before us 
this morning, God, so far as we are able to dis- 
cover, employed no intervening instrumentality in 
his communication with Abram. He spoke directly 
to the father of the faithful. The glow of divinity 
is on the text of this morning. Out from this nar- 
rative the rays of God's glory shine ; and the voice 
of the Almighty is clearly heard in this text. Mr. 
Spurgeon finely calls this class of texts the " Kohi- 
noors " of the Bible. Kohinoors, or " mountains of 
light," indeed, are the texts which bring God so 
audibly before men. 

God still talks to his children in sweetest confi- 
dence. He still joins with them in holiest fellow- 

47 



48 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

ship. To him who overcomes finally will be given 
a white stone, and in that stone a new name is 
written, a name known only to the divine Giver, 
and to the human receiver. It is a holy secret 
between God and one of his children. If you and 
the person next you know facts known to you and 
to no others, there is a sacred friendship between 
you; there is a strong bond binding you together. 
This is the very thought of the new name in the 
white stone given at last to those who overcome. 
God manifests such conditions of friendship, even 
here and now. Can God see? Can God hear? 
Who can doubt that he both sees and hears? The 
day is coming when it will be seen that prayer and 
communion with God are as much in harmony with 
natural law as the long distance telephone, or as is 
wireless telegraphy. The laws of the natural world 
are as truly divine as are the laws of the spiritual 
world. That miserable, medieval, monkish notion 
that the world was hopelessly bad, fortunately has 
largely disappeared from Christian literature and 
daily life. The book of creation is God's unwritten 
bible, as Holy Scripture is God's written Bible. 
Both are God's Bibles; both reveal God's thought 
and declare God's love. 

The Divine Presence. 

Coming still more closely to the text we discover, 
in the first place, that we have here God's Presence 
— "And when Abram was ninety years old and 



THE PROMISEFUL PRESENCE 49 

nine, the Lord appeared to Abram." God's pres- 
ence was most timely. He came to Abram in a 
merciful manifestation. Abram for thirteen years, 
so far as we can discover, received no extraordi- 
nary communication from God. Abram was now 
ninety-nine years old ; and thirteen years had passed 
since the birth of Ishmael — thirteen years of great 
humiliation on the part of Sarah, and thirteen years 
of painful waiting on the part of Abram. These 
thirteen years were, as I have suggested, years of 
silence on the part of God. Once Abram had lis- 
tened to God's promise, and his faith had not stag- 
gered; but afterward his faith did stagger. He 
endeavored to help God fulfil his promise. Polyg- 
amy was tolerated in the Old Testament dispensa- 
tion, because of the hardness of men's hearts; but 
it was never sanctioned by God. Through all these 
years the divine voice was silent, and Abram's heart 
was sad. Now God comes in mercy to renew his 
intimacy with Abram. Abram sinned and he must 
suffer; and he did suffer. We also are sometimes 
tempted to resort to doubtful means to help God 
fulfil his promise ; we are tempted to wink at wrong 
in political life, if the wrong is in the interest of our 
party; we look leniently on wrong in business life, 
when that wrong is for our financial gain. We thus 
are all exposed to temptation along these lines, in 
business life, in political ambitions, and in our 
family relations. We need the rebuke which came 
to Abram; we need exhortations to loyalty and to 

D 



50 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

love. We cannot forget that the best men are, at 
the best, only men. We cannot forget that Homer 
may nod; we cannot forget that the sun has spots. 
We cannot forget that even the father of the faith- 
ful appeared faithless. Men often fail where they 
are supposed to be strongest ; they often fail not at 
their weakest points, but at those which are sup- 
posed to be strongest. We may, however, be com- 
forted by the fact that the man who never makes 
a mistake is a man who is not likely ever to make 
anything. 

You will notice also that God's presence was a 
personal presence. The Almighty addressed Abram, 
using the first personal pronoun. It is a wonderful 
thing that, in God's word, we have God speaking 
and using that pronoun. Here through the clouds 
he has come; here, without any intermediate repre- 
sentative, God directly and personally speaks. It is 
certain that God can make, and that he often has 
made, some visible manifestation of himself. Doubt- 
less, Christ often appeared in temporary incarna- 
tions before his prolonged incarnation in the like- 
ness of man during his earthly life. As you study 
the Old Testament, you will discover, without 
doubt, frequent appearances of God, as we have 
reason to believe, in the person of Jesus Christ. 
Thus he appeared to Abram; thus he appeared to 
Moses; thus he appeared to Joshua; and at other 
times also along the line of Old Testament history, 
God made appearances, epiphanies, theophanies, in 



THE PROMISEFUL PRESENCE 5 1 

temporary incarnations of Christ, before the pro- 
longed incarnation following the birth in Bethlehem. 
We all readily recognize that God is not obliged to 
follow any prescribed method of appearance or of 
revelation. 

This was also a most comforting appearance of 
God. God revealed himself, on this occasion, by an 
august title; the form in which that title appears, 
in our version, is the Almighty God. The Hebrew 
title is El Shaddai. This title of God is found six 
times in Genesis ; it is found thirty-one times in the 
book of Job. This name is a revelation of sublime 
facts in God's nature. Wrong conceptions of God 
are largely responsible for human sin. A wrong 
conception of God was responsible for Abram's sin 
on this occasion. If Abram had remembered that 
God is able to fulfil all his promises, he would not 
have been guilty of attempting to assist God in that 
respect. Had he remembered that truth, he had not 
sinned. El Shaddai means the All-Sufficient One. 
El means the Strong, the Lasting, the Absolute 
One. It comes from a root meaning to twist, as 
you twist a cable, and it thus suggests the strong 
God. Shaddai means the Unchangeable, the Irre- 
sistible One ; the One " who is the same yesterday, 
and to-day, and forever " ; the One in whom " there 
is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." 
Putting the two names together, therefore, we 
have the Strong and Unchangeable God. Oh ! what 
a glorious name this is, by which God made him- 



^2 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

self known to Abram ! In him all power resides. 
Elohim is the God who creates nature, and so in 
the earlier accounts of God's creative power, we 
have that name. The word is in the plural, and 
usually with a verb in the singular. Elohim cre- 
ates and preserves nature. El Shaddai is the God 
who controls nature, who subdues nature, who 
makes nature ministrant to spiritual and divine pur- 
poses. Every new name of God is a new revelation 
of God's character. The study of the names of 
God is wonderfully interesting and instructive. 
Each name is an unfoldment of glorious and divine 
elements and facts which are contained in God's 
character. 

It is interesting also to observe that this was one 
of the world-wide titles of God. Thus it was 
known to Balaam ; and thus it is found in the Book 
of Job. God is not mastered by his creation; the 
Almighty cannot be subordinate to his own handi- 
work. Nature discloses much of God's power and 
God's goodness; but nature cannot reveal God in 
his infinite fulness. We joyfully recognize the part 
nature performs as a revelation of God. We stand 
with uncovered head beside the psalmist when he 
states : " The heavens declare the glory of God ; and 
the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto 
day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth 
knowledge." But the heavens cannot reveal all of 
God. Nature may show me God's hand; the Bible 
shows me God's heart. Nature may reveal God as 



THE PROMISEEUL PRESENCE 53 

Creator and Preserver; the Bibie reveals God as 
Father and Redeemer. Thus God comes in the text 
in this new name and with a new unfoldment of his 
own great and glorious character. This name 
teaches us that back of God's promise is God's puis- 
sance. Potency must supplement promise; power 
to do must be associated with power to say; God 
thus made known to Abram, the father of the faith- 
ful, his fuller character in this diviner name. Abram 
greatly needed this encouragement at this moment; 
his faith had staggered. Let him now know that 
God's power is back of God's promises; that noth- 
ing is impossible with God ; that nothing is too hard 
for God ; that God is the vivifier even of the dead — 
then he can fully trust and patiently wait. 

We cannot but be impressed by the timeliness of 
God's appearance. When the tale of bricks was 
doubled, then came Moses. When the knell of lib- 
erty was sounded, then the deliverer was born. 
When civil and religious liberty had well-nigh per- 
ished from the earth, then came the Protestant 
Reformation. When the colonies groaned under the 
arbitrary authority of George III and Lord North, 
then came Washington and the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. When slavery had cast its dark shadow 
over our fair land, then came America's mightiest 
son, Abraham Lincoln, with his Emancipation Proc- 
lamation. Evermore man's extremity is God's op- 
portunity; evermore the hour that is darkest ushers 
in the dawn with its highest hope. Evermore the 



54 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

star of morning rises soon after the hour of deep- 
est midnight. God's presence is timely! O trust 
him ! O believe in him ! O wait upon the Lord, and 
he will renew thy strength! 

The Divine Precept. 

I beg you to notice also the divine Precept in this 
text — -" Walk before me, and be thou perfect." The 
literal translation is, " Set thyself to walk." Relig- 
ion is intensely practical. Abram had erred. To 
him suggestively God administers rebuke. It is as if 
God said, " Unpleasant duties must frequently be 
performed, but walk thou on loyally, prayerfully, 
manfully, pursuing the even tenor of thy way." 
We are all in need of just such an admonition as 
this. The true believer, like the heavenly bodies, is 
constant and unfailing in his acts of obedience to 
God. Taking a few steps is not walking with God. 
Enoch walked with God ; he thus took more than a 
few steps. He kept right on taking steps. You 
are not a walker with God, if you are only a stepper 
for a little while. A man is not wholly bad, if even 
now and then an action of his is bad ; neither is a 
man really good, if even now and then an act of his 
is good. Cain offered sacrifice; but Cain was bad. 
Peter denied ; but Peter was on the whole good, al- 
though he took a step now and then away from 
God. See yonder river flowing! But observe that 
in this eddy the water is flowing in the opposite 
direction. Watch the eddy; soon the water flows 



THE PROMISEFUL PRESENCE 55 

onward. The life of the good man is a current 
flowing toward God. There may be, for a little 
time, an eddy in his life, but the eddy is not the 
stream; it is only an eddy which will soon join the 
stream. We are to judge men by the trend of their 
lives. 

Religion must also be sincere — " be thou per- 
fect." Be patient; walk on. Trust God's truth; 
trust God's love. Does this mean that a man may 
become absolutely perfect? I do not so affirm, but 
I do affirm that it is possible for all of us to stand 
on a vastly higher plane than that on which we 
now stand. It is possible for us to be much more 
like God than any of us are now like God. God 
cannot place before us any other than a perfect 
standard. Let your life be planned according to 
the perfect rule ; any other injunction from God 
would be unbecoming in God. This precept im- 
plies the possession of the necessary strength. All 
God's commands, it has been well said, are God's 
enablements. With God on our side, we are irre- 
sistible. God's rule of arithmetic is simply wonder- 
ful; there is no rule in earthly mathematics like 
that of heavenly arithmetic. According to the heav- 
enly rule, while one can chase one thousand, two 
can put ten thousand to flight. God never will for- 
sake a brave man who is doing his duty under the 
impulse of a high motive. The true soldier of God 
is never beaten. John the Baptist and Jesus Christ 
were the subjects of bitter hatred, and the victims 



56 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

of foulest murder; but they rose from their graves 
to live immortal lives. Savonarola was hanged, 
May 23, 1498, and two other Dominicans with him, 
and their bodies were burned. But Savonarola rose 
to reach out his hand across the years to Martin 
Luther, to cheer him on to trial and to triumph. 
This is God's law forevermore. To-day men are 
caricatured; to-morrow, if they be thoroughly 
worthy men, they will be glorified. The men of 
worth who are cannonaded to-day, will be canonized 
to-morrow. The man who strikes at evil is the 
man at whom evil will strike. If he be genuinely 
good, let evil strike at him; but, in the end, it will 
be evil that will be struck. The heroes of the cen- 
turies are the men who dared to do and to die for 
God. Their memory is immortal; their glory will 
shine with increasing brightness. " The memory 
of the just is blessed; but the name of the wicked 
shall rot." 

The Divine Promise. 

Your attention, in the last place, is called to the 
gracious Promise in the text. We have had the 
divine presence and the divine precept; and now 
look, for a little time, at the divine promise — "And 
I will make my covenant between me and thee, and 
will multiply thee exceedingly." This is to us a 
most gracious and comforting promise. This is the 
fifth time that the promise was given, that Abram 
should be the father of an innumerable host. 



THE PROMISEFUL PRESENCE 57 

Abram means high father; this name is now 
changed to Abraham, meaning high or eminent, 
father of a multitude. Sarai's name also was 
changed. Sarai, some say, means " contentious " ; 
the better interpretation makes it mean " my prin- 
cess " ; but the restriction implied in the possessive 
" my " is now removed. Her position is greatly en- 
larged; she becomes Sarah, princess. She is now 
to be the princess of a multitude. God changed the 
name of Jacob — supplanter, tripper-up, heel-catcher 
— to Israel, prince with God, victor through God. 
What a wonderful change, when Jacob loses his old 
name and character, and becomes Israel! Simon 
becomes Peter. Simon, the hearer, becomes Peter, 
the rock. Superb name! In like manner Saul be- 
comes Paul. 

So God gives to us now great and precious prom- 
ises. This ancient promise is ever expanding. It 
has its significant relation to us to-day. It is full 
of inspiration and hope. It is finding its fulfilment 
in many lands. Every idol shall fall. The islands 
of the seas are turning to God. Idols are gone, or 
going, in Japan; and the truth of this promise is 
covering the hills and valleys of Japan with light 
and joy and peace. Even China, before many 
years shall pass, will be marching with the foremost 
nations of the earth, to the music of modern civili- 
zation and to the religion of Jesus Christ. This 
promise has found its fulfilment in India, and al- 
ready some of its heathen temples are the abodes 



58 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

of bats and snakes; and the name of Christ is now 
echoing over the hills of India and the towering 
peaks of the glorious Himalayas. Glory be to God, 
the true seed of Abraham will one day fill the whole 
earth ! 



IV 
THE SHINING FACE 

Text: And it came to pass, when Moses came down 
from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in 
Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that 
Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he 
talked with him. — Exod. 34 : 29. 

VERY wonderful indeed was the interview of 
Moses with God on the mount during the 
period of forty days and forty nights. Moses was 
there in intimate communion with God; and during 
this entire period he did neither eat nor drink. He 
was thus taught, by a strange and blessed experi- 
ence, that man does not live by bread alone, but by 
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of 
God. Perhaps his communion with God was such 
that he neither required nor desired the bread which 
perisheth. There are many difficult questions which 
can readily be asked regarding the nature of this 
communion with God, and the method of life which 
Moses lived while that communion continued. But 
we may be quite sure that God, who sought this 
communion, answered in the practical experience 
of Moses all those questions that seem to us so dif- 
ficult. Moses could readily be sustained without 
the ordinary use of the means necessary for our sus- 

59 



60 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

tenance. Moses had meat to eat of which the world 
knew nothing. Moses lived on food that was di- 
vine, and that food was the immediate gift of God 
with whom he held sweet communion. His soul 
must have been filled with the visions of the Al- 
mighty, so filled that the ordinary requirements of 
the body were for the time entirely forgotten. Not 
with meat and drink, but with his light, his law, his 
love, his peace, and his joy did God fill the body and 
soul of his distinguished servant. This period of 
forty days was afterward signalized both in the lives 
of Elijah and of Christ. 

The Shining Face. 

In developing the thoughts of this text, I call 
your attention, in the first place, to the Shining of 
the face of Moses. Moses carried with him from 
God the two tables of the testimony written by the 
finger of God ; but he also carried back to the people 
the best kind of personal adornment, a shining face. 
No man is ever so beautifully adorned as the man 
whose face glows with the light of God. Aaron 
and the people, as you remember, sinned strangely 
and grievously during the absence of Moses on a 
former occasion; and when he came down from 
the mount at that time there was fittingly a frown 
upon his face. Now instead of a frown, there is 
on his face the glory of God. On that former occa- 
sion, the unwelcome noise of the revelry of the 
people grated harshly upon the ear and the soul of 



THE SHINING FACE 6l 

Moses, who had just been in sweet communion 
with God. Then it was becoming that he should 
descend as a leader and commander of the people, 
to chastise them for their idolatry. But now he 
comes with messages of mercy, and with the facial 
glow of a mediator who has been admitted into the 
immediate presence of God. On that earlier occa- 
sion, he came back to the people with the rod of a 
magistrate; on this occasion, he conies with the 
shining face of a messenger of peace and of love. 
His shining face was a mark of the divine favor to 
himself. The people, in this way, were to know 
that he had been with God and had been accepted 
by God. They would not, therefore, be likely again 
ever to question his divine authority, because of 
their present knowledge of the communion with 
God he had just enjoyed. He thus carried, as has 
been suggestively said, his divine credentials in the 
shining of his face. Thus it was done to the man 
whom the King of kings delighted to honor. 

The face often is the man. The soul looks out 
through the eyes; the heart often voices itself by 
the lips. A shining face is suggestive of a peaceful 
spirit, and a musical voice of a properly attuned 
soul. It thus comes to pass, that when men have 
lived with God, they carry the very glory of God 
in their faces. It is quite probable that Moses long 
retained, perhaps he always retained, in his face 
the reflection of the glory of God's presence. It 
would not be surprising, if ever after that moment, 



62 THE CHRISTTC HEIGN 



until his mysterious death, Moses was a different 
man in face and in spirit from what he had ever 
been before, This interview may have contributed 
to the vigor of his old age. There are marvelously 
mysterious laws of life; we have not yet mastered 
them in their full meaning. There is a broad mar- 
gin of mystery lying between the known and the 
unknown, between life and death, and between 
sickness and health. We occasionally make incur- 
sions into that margin of territory, and we often 
carry back therefrom some new knowledge; but in 
the years to come, parents, physicians, and clergy- 
men will have vastly enlarged spheres of knowl- 
edge, knowledge of which now we only dream in 
our loftiest moments. It would not at all surprise 
me if, somehow, God gave Moses new physical 
vigor, new mental celerity, and new spiritual exal- 
tation from that moment. There are times when 
we are just as distinctly conscious that God pours 
physical vigor into us as we are that we are alive, 
times when we lay our souls open to God and say, 
" O God, fill us with physical power, mental astute- 
ness, and spiritual apprehension! " If such experi- 
ences be possible to us now, what might have been 
possible to Moses when he was in the holy mount 
with God? The eye that had seen God would not 
grow dim ; the ear that had heard God's voice would 
not become heavy with old age ; the natural strength 
which was increased by this communion with God 
would not soon abate ; and the face would not read- 



THE SHINING FACE 63 

ily become wrinkled which had shone with the re- 
splendence of God's uplifted countenance. Am I 
exaggerating ? Am I overstating the truth ? Rather, 
is it not the fact that I am understating the truth? 
We live too far away from God, and the result is 
that we fail to receive from God copious supplies 
in physical vigor, in mental force, and in spiritual 
power and joy. 

The Cause of the Shining Face. 

Perhaps we are now prepared to advance a step, 
and to ask and to answer the question, " What was 
the Cause of the shining of the face of Moses ? " 
The shining of the face was, doubtless, due to his 
sight of the glorious God. It would seem that on 
this occasion, he saw more of the glory of God than 
when he was in the mount on the former occasion. 
Having now beheld the glory of God with open 
face, he was, in some measure, changed into the 
same image from glory to glory. Communion with 
God causes the face to shine ; living with God gives 
luster to a man's countenance. Living with the devil 
makes a man's face satanic. The mouth, the nos- 
trils, every part of the man's face will thus soon 
possess marks of degradation. Cherishing vile 
thoughts, the face will become vile ; but living with 
exalted affections, the face becomes ennobled. The 
glory of the ever-blessed God possessed, in largest 
measure possible, will change a man's life in every 
particular. In comparison with the facial bright- 



64 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

ness ordinarily possessed by Moses, that which he 
had now was inexpressibly lustrous and glorious. 
Christ's radiance, however, was the glory that ex- 
celleth. Not only did his face shine as the sun, but 
on one occasion, his whole presence was radiant; 
his raiment was white and glistering; it flashed 
forth light; it was more resplendent than any 
fuller could whiten it; it was whiter than the glis- 
tening snow on Mount Hermon. The glory of 
Christ was, for the most part, hidden; but on that 
one occasion, it rayed out until his very garments 
were radiant with undimmed splendor. 

We also read that the face of Stephen was like 
the face of an angel. We have all seen men and 
women whose faces were like the faces of angels. 
There is in mind now a woman who had recently 
come out of a baptism of terrible sorrow ; she sat 
in her pew looking up into my face, and I emphat- 
ically affirm that the very glory of God was in her 
face on that Sunday morning. There is still in the 
Christian life the beauty of holiness. It is still quite 
possible for us so to live that men shall take knowl- 
edge of us that we have been with Jesus. When men 
obey Christ, they receive his peace into their hearts, 
and the glory of his radiant life comes into their 
faces. Again and again have I seen faces shine, 
as did the face of Stephen, when men and women 
came up out of the baptismal waters. Often the 
glory of God in supernal splendor has come down 
upon these baptismal waters. The faces of young 



THE SHINING FACE 65 

converts have often been radiant; they have shone 
like the faces of angels. Mysterious joy often 
comes into the hearts of God's people, and the glory 
of the Lord then shines in their faces. Joy in the 
Lord is not simply a privilege ; it is a duty. Cheer- 
fulness promotes physical health and dispenses spir- 
itual blessing. Christian joy will make a homely 
face beautiful, and a beautiful face transcendently 
charming. A rugged and seamed face, if illumined 
with the glory of God, is a sight to charm the soul 
of an artist, and to inspire with joy the heart of an 
angel. God can drive gloom from the soul and il- 
lumine the face with joy that is unspeakable and 
full of glory. White, and not black, is the color of 
heaven. God loves joy and not gloom. The gloomy 
Christian misrepresents his heavenly Father; he 
practically says that God is a hard master. A long 
face on a Christian man is truly a false face. Do 
not tell me that men of the world are joyous. They 
never know genuine joy, such as they might know if 
they were men of God. They call a life of sin a life 
of pleasure. It is a life of slavery. He who serves 
the devil serves a hard master. If you are to sup 
with the devil, you certainly need a long spoon; 
and however long your spoon, you will eventually 
pay the penalty of making the devil your friend. 
There is a great difference between joy and happi- 
ness. Happiness is just what haps; but joy is not 
external, it is internal. Joy is not dependent upon 
what happens ; joy springs up from within the soul. 

E 



66 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

It is independent of external conditions and envi- 
ronments ; it is a well of water springing up within 
the heart unto everlasting life. There is also a great 
difference between the joy of a saint and the joy 
of a sinner. The joy of a sinner has been compared 
to lightning; the joy of a saint is comparable to 
light. Light is soft, sweet, wholesome, peaceful, 
healthful; lightning is blighting, scorching, blasting. 
Living with Christ, we catch his spirit. No law 
is more general than that association produces as- 
similation. A man comes to be like his wife when 
they have lived together for many years; it would 
be much better for a good many men if they were 
more like their wives. It is a solemn truth that 
association produces assimilation. A musician 
ought not to hear discordant sounds. A painter 
ought not to gaze long on painful sights. Music 
ought to minister to harmony, to concord, to beauty. 
Painting ought to minister to the beautiful, the pure, 
the celestial. We ought not often to see bad pictures ; 
we ought not to study the pictures of " Von Daub." 
Our souls need harmony, health, good, God. God is 
health, God is peace, God is love. He is the God of 
the beautiful. Look at the flowers on this table. 
Did art ever make a rose like this one? What are 
flowers? They are God's beautiful thoughts. Am 
I a student of botany? Then I am a student of 
God's handiwork, of God's exquisite sense of odors, 
of God's graceful touch, and of God's gentle 
thoughts translated into beautiful flowers. 



THE SHINING FACE 67 



We must live with Christ if we would gain his 
image. Do you live with Christ? Have you time 
for daily communion with Christ? Do you know 
what it is, sometimes at least, to he alone with God 
— perhaps it is on an elevated train, perhaps it is in 
a crowded surface car — but somewhere alone with 
God? A few minutes in the day with God will 
change the whole day; it will soften the spirit; it 
will sweeten the life; it will beautify the home; it 
will make your heart joyous and your face radiant. 

Moses Ignorant of the Radiance. 

Will you allow me to advance a step farther, while 
I remind you that Moses did not know that his face 
was shining? This is the very charm of his shin- 
ing face. This is one of the sweetest thoughts in 
this entire discussion. Others saw the shining; but 
he did not know it. The truth was attested by 
Aaron and by the children of Israel generally. They 
were dazzled and awed by what they saw. Good- 
ness always commands respect. The value of a 
man's testimony in court depends upon the man's 
life out of court. The force of a lawyer's plea de- 
pends largely upon the lawyer's life. The influence 
of a physician in a sick room depends somewhat 
upon the spirit and life of that physician outside 
the sick room. A low, vulgar, sensual physician 
has no right to go into a sick room to treat a deli- 
cate child or a pure woman. He ought rather to 
abhor himself. One reason why certain spiritual 



68 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

forms of treatment of disease have come into vogue 
is because some doctors forget that their patients 
have spiritual natures. 

Moses, in his modesty and humility, put a veil 
upon his face. He accommodated himself to the 
capacity of the people to bear the token of God's 
nearness. He then went into the tabernacle before 
the Lord and put off his veil. Every form of con- 
cealment is necessarily thrown aside when men 
present themselves before God. How beautiful was 
the unconsciousness of Moses ! We never know the 
power that goes out from us; ofcen unconscious 
power is the highest form of power. A lady said 
to me, the other day, of a clergyman who used to 
live in this city, that whenever she saw him on the 
opposite side of the street, she crossed over that she 
might meet him. She said, " There is a benediction 
in his presence " ; she thus illustrated what is said 
in Scripture about the people being healed by the 
shadow of the Apostle Peter. The beauty of the 
Lord our God is upon many Christian men and 
women, and they are thinking only of their own 
unworthiness. Their faces and lives shine with the 
indwelling of Christ in their souls ; but they see not 
the radiancy of glory which all others see in their 
lives and faces. Their unconsciousness is one of the 
best evidences of their possession of divine grace 
in its fullest measure. The moment a man thinks 
he is perfect, that moment he ceases to be perfect. 
The moment a man begins to think of himself un- 



THE SHINING FACE 69 

duly, that moment he begins to think of God un- 
justly. The man who lives in an unduly intro- 
spective spirit, always studying himself, has ceased 
rightly and objectively to study God. When we 
forget self, God is remembering us aright, and we 
are remembering God aright. I have the profound- 
est contempt for the monks who, to save their little, 
shriveled souls, went off into caves, or dens, or 
lived on the top of pillars; poor, ignorant, selfish 
souls ! The man who forgets himself and goes out 
to help his fellow-men, and thus to serve his God, is 
saving his soul after God's fashion. Lowliness in 
feeling is evidence of loftiness in attainment. 

While a man is struggling toward perfection, he 
is growing in grace; but when he thinks he has at- 
tained perfection, he has begun to go downward 
rather than upward, and backward rather than for- 
ward. Ours is an upward calling, and when we 
cease to advance, we begin to retrograde. The 
Apostle Paul affirmed that he had not yet attained, 
and was not yet perfect. Most charming is it to 
see how unconscious was Moses and how uncon- 
scious was the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul 
when converted declared himself unworthy to be 
called an apostle. As the time passed, and he grew 
in grace and in knowledge, he said, about the year 
64, that he was the least of all saints ; and just be- 
fore his martyrdom, when he reached a still loftier 
stature in Christ Jesus, perhaps in the year 66 or 
67, he said, " I am the chief of sinners." He 



yO THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

never was so near heaven as when he said he was 
the chief of sinners. How beautiful was the humil- 
ity of John the Baptist! He never forgot his in- 
feriority to Jesus the Christ. He virtually said, " I 
am only a voice. I am nothing but one crying in 
the wilderness." He said, " I am not worthy, stoop- 
ing down, to unloose the shoes' latchet of Jesus 
Christ." But what did Jesus Christ say of him? 
" Among them that are born of women, there 
hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist " ; 
this is the proudest eulogy that was ever pronounced 
upon a human being in the history of the race. 
John blessedly showed his humility when he said 
of Christ, " He must increase, but I must decrease." 

In Prov. 15 : 33 we read, " Before honor is hu- 
mility." On one of the colleges in Cambridge this 
thought is beautifully expressed. There are three 
gateways ; the first is called " Humilitatis," the gate 
of humility ; the second is " Virtutis," the gate of 
virtue; the third is "Honoris," the gate of honor. 
This is the order of the Christian life. Begin to-day 
by accepting Jesus Christ as your Saviour. Then 
go forward in his blessed service. 

If you can do nothing else for God, you can carry 
a shining face. Charles Kingsley finely said, " If 
you wish your neighbors to see what God is like, let 
them see what he can make you like." May we hear 
the words of the Master, " Even so let your light 
shine before men, that they may see your good 
works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." 



V 

THE WORTHIEST RESOLUTION 

Text: . . . But as for me and my house, we will serve 
the Lord. — Josh. 24 : 1$. 

THESE are noble words uttered by a noble man 
on a great occasion. Significant and beautiful 
as the words are in themselves, they become vastly 
more significant and beautiful when the occasion on 
which they were uttered is considered, and the char- 
acter of the speaker is rightly appreciated. There 
are fewer nobler men than Joshua found in the 
records of the Bible; and there are few sublimer 
occasions than the great assembly of the children of 
Israel at which the words of this text were spoken. 
We may profitably study this resolution of the 
noble speaker on this great occasion ; its character- 
istics are well worthy of hearty commendation and 
of constant imitation, on the part of men and 
women, in every age and country. 

Three considerations add greatly to the signifi- 
cance of this text. The first consideration is the 
place in which these words were uttered ; this place 
was Shechem, a vicinity greatly significant in Bible 
history. It was here that Abraham, on his first 
migration to the land of promise, pitched his tent 

7i 



72 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

and built an altar unto God. This transaction took 
place under the oak, or terebinth, of Moreh at She- 
chem. In Jacob's time, the oak under which Abra- 
ham worshiped still existed. The images which 
some of Jacob's family had brought from Padan- 
aram, were buried here under this oak. The sons 
of Jacob drove their flocks to Shechem, and in this 
vicinity Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites. This 
was one of the most beautiful spots in Palestine. 
We know that, as a rule, Palestine is not a beau- 
tiful country; this, however, is its very garden. It 
was a common Mohammedan tradition that Allah 
loved Syria beyond all lands, and the place he loved 
most is the mountain of Nablus. All travelers 
have been loud in their praise of the charms of 
nature in this neighborhood. The valley is pro- 
tected by Gerizim on the south, and Ebal on the 
north. The feet of these mountains are not more 
than five hundred yards apart at the bottom of the 
valley. Here are heard the sounds of nightingales 
and other birds; here the watery particles which 
rise from many streams, pouring down the sides 
of the mountain, give the atmosphere its purple- 
colored hues. Every traveler is instantly conscious 
of the charms of nature in this historic valley. 

The occasion also on which the text was spoken 
adds greatly to its importance. Joshua's long and 
useful life is nearing its close. He saw the people 
separating from the Lord their God. He now gath- 
ers up his waning energies, in an attempt to bind 



THE WORTHIEST RESOLUTION 73 

the people to the service of the God of their fathers. 
His life-work was nearly over; he will make its 
evening sublimer than its noonday. He, therefore, 
assembled the people in this valley, so famous for 
its historic associations and for its natural attrac- 
tions, and will strive to commit them anew to the 
service of God. Here his last counsels were spoken, 
here his last noble resolution was uttered. This 
place was made even more significant and sacred, 
because a greater than Joshua sat on Jacob's well 
and told the woman of Samaria of the water of 
life. Could any spot in any country claim historic 
associations so beautiful and sublime as those gath- 
ering about this valley and its vicinity? 

Joshua's own character, as the speaker on this 
great occasion, gives additional value to his words. 
He was the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim. 
He began his life as a slave in the brick fields of 
Egypt. He was probably forty years of age when 
the great events of the exodus occurred. Moses 
soon saw that he possessed the qualities necessary 
in a great leader, and in the man who should be- 
come the successor of himself. He appears first in 
connection with the fight against Amalek at Rephi- 
dim. He accompanied Moses part of the way up 
Sinai, when Moses went the first time to receive the 
tables of testimony. He was one of the twelve 
chiefs sent to explore the land of Canaan, and one 
of the two who gave an encouraging report of the 
land they explored. He was one of the few sur- 



74 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

vivors of the forty years of wandering in the wil- 
derness. His life is given with fulness of detail, 
and yet no stain appears upon his character. His 
heroic achievements would have kindled the imagi- 
nation of poets in the early Christian centuries, and 
still more fully in the age of chivalry. He was a 
devout warrior, fearless and heroic, and yet blame- 
less in act, as he was simple in faith. He was as 
knightly and chivalrous as he was tender and gen- 
erous. He was an Oliver Cromwell, a Henry Have- 
lock, a " Stonewall " Jackson, and a General 
Howard in his union of religious faith with knightly 
chivalry and patriotic courage. By learning obedi- 
ence as a youth, he knew how to exercise authority 
as a man. He died when one hundred and ten 
years old, and was buried in his own city of Tim- 
nath-serah. The man behind the words gives the 
words power. We always ask, " Who said it ? " as 
truly as we ask, " What was said ? " The " who " 
is as important as the " what " in such cases as this. 
The place, the occasion, and the speaker thus com- 
bine to give additional authority to the noble reso- 
lution which is the text of this discourse. 

A Personal Resolution. 

It is to be observed, in the first place, that this is 
a Personal resolution — "As for me and my house, 
we will serve the Lord." Joshua gave the people 
the opportunity to decide between the service of 
God and the worship of idols; he urged the people 



THE WORTHIEST RESOLUTION 75 

to make their choice, as did Elijah on another mem- 
orable occasion, between the false worship and the 
true, between indulgence in their lower natures and 
the approval of their enlightened judgment and 
illumined conscience. He does not really give the 
people the option between the worship of God and 
the worship of idols ; but after commanding them 
to serve God, he suggests that, if they reject God, 
they must choose between the various idols their 
fathers had worshiped, as the objects of their 
devotion. He then grandly affirms that as for him- 
self, his choice is already made. He will not be 
tempted to turn away from God and to worship 
idols, whatever the people may decide to do on their 
own behalf. Already he had spent long years of 
his noble life in the service of Jehovah, and noth- 
ing whatever could now induce him to turn away 
from that service for the worship of idols of any 
nation or character. His words ring out with a 
most inspiring tone ; they stir our hearts, warm our 
blood, and inspire our faith even to this hour. They 
are words which might be chosen by every father 
as his motto, governing his personal and family life. 
It is impossible to overestimate the influence that 
these words have had all through the ages in lead- 
ing men to decide for God, and publicly to profess 
their faith on behalf of themselves and their fami- 
lies. Nothing more fully showed Joshua's fitness 
to be a leader of men than the decision which he 
here made, and which he so triumphantly proclaims. 



j6 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

He will not wait to discover what the majority of 
the people may approve, but he instantly, joyously, 
and irrevocably commits himself to the service of 
God with full purpose of heart. Many men wait 
to see in which direction the current of popular feel- 
ing may flow before they take a decided step for 
themselves. Joshua was not a man of that type. 
He dared to stand alone, so far as the people were 
concerned, if he might stand alone with God. Never 
does a man appear so manly as when he decides, 
whatever others may do, to serve God with every 
power of brain and heart which God has bestowed. 
Every man listening to Joshua's voice must have 
commended his courage, even though he did not 
fully follow his example. This decision, we may be 
absolutely sure, Joshua never regretted. He is now 
near the end of his long and superb career. He is 
addressing a somewhat degenerate generation, but 
he rings out his decision and utters his challenge 
with an enthusiasm and devotion which must have 
stirred the hearts of his hearers even as our hearts 
are moved to this day as we read his words. 

All true religion must have in it this element of 
personality. We cannot too strongly press the idea 
that true religion is personal. Every man must have 
personal transactions with the Lord God, if religion 
is to be the dominant element in the man's soul. All 
responsibility must have in it this element of per- 
sonality. No man can believe and obey for his 
brother man. Neither the father nor the mother can 



THE WORTHIEST RESOLUTION JJ 

believe and obey for a child. Men, women, and 
children must personally belong to God and be con- 
secrated to his service. In this way, every home 
may become a house of God, and be thoroughly 
permeated by a spiritual atmosphere. 

It is impossible to overestimate the solemnity of 
our personality. It is a characteristic of our con- 
scious, separate existence as independent beings. 
Personality is a wall, high as heaven and deep as 
hades, separating every man from every other man. 
Personality is eternal as God; perhaps even God 
cannot destroy personal existence. One would 
suppose that if such destruction were possible, Satan 
would long ago have been destroyed by the Al- 
mighty. The first note struck by a child's conscious 
existence will echo through the eternities. The 
thought is tremendously solemn ; it also is a thought 
full of exaltation and even of sublimity. Person- 
ality is that which distinguishes one from all other 
human beings ; it is that which constitutes us as sep- 
arate existences in contradistinction to the animals 
which perish. Personality consists of at least three 
attributes — self-consciousness, character, and will. 
If these be wanting, the element of personality is 
wanting also ; and if that be wanting, a distinct, re- 
sponsible, and immortal human being is non-existent. 
This element of personality will continue in eternity. 
The thought is tremendously solemn ; the thought is 
also transcendently glorious. We are made in the 
image of God ; that image implies personality, and 



?8 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

that personality involves eternal existence. How 
shall that existence be spent? The answer to that 
question depends upon our personal relations to the 
great God. Are we willing, here and now, to choose 
God and his service in life, that we may enjoy God's 
presence and continue in his service through the 
eternal years ? Will you to-day, here and now, make 
the resolution of Joshua your own, declaring that, 
whatever others may do, you will serve the Lord 
God with all your heart and soul? 

A Parental Resolution. 

In the second place, it is to be noticed that this 
was a Parental resolution — "As for me and my 
house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua was deter- 
mined to be loyal to God in his personal life, and 
he also determined that, so far as his influence could 
make it possible, his family should also serve God. 
In this respect he exercised becoming parental au- 
thority. Parents are, in a real sense, God to their 
children. This responsibility they must recognize, 
and the duties which it involves they ought con- 
stantly to discharge. They actually stand in the 
place of the Almighty to their children in the early 
days of their childhood. It is pitiful beyond expres- 
sion that children should grow up in our country, 
in our century, and have no definite ideas regarding 
God and their duties toward him and their fellow- 
men. Parents incur a solemn responsibility when 
they neglect the religious education of their chil- 



THE WORTHIEST RESOLUTION 79 

dren. When they fail in their personal duty to God, 
they cannot expect their children to be devoted to 
God, whose service, as parents, they neglect. It is 
one thing to say to children, " Come, let us serve 
God " ; but it is quite another thing for parents to 
say to children, " Go ye and serve God." If their 
exhortation is to have weight, it must be supported 
by their own obedient example in the service of 
God. 

Many parents do not understand their duty and 
their privilege in relation to their children. They 
forget that they most honor God when they urge 
their children personally to enter upon his service. 
It is to be feared that often they sin against their 
own children. They certainly sin against their own 
children when they set them a bad example in their 
own moral conduct, or in their neglect of duty in 
failing to acknowledge God as their Lord and 
Saviour. They sin against their own children when 
they doubt the possibility and desirability of child 
conversion. They sin against their own children 
when they refuse their consent to the public profes- 
sion of Christ on the part of their children who 
have truly given their hearts to Christ as their 
Saviour. Often fathers are peculiarly guilty in all 
these respects. They leave all the religious duties 
of the family to the wife and the mother. The 
mother, in turn, knowing the father to be the head of 
the house, throws upon him the responsibility even 
for her own neglect of duty. Parents thus often 



So THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

trifle with the most sacred moral interests of their 
children. Joshua, in all these respects, sets every 
father a noble example. He would bind his house, 
as well as himself, to God in a bond that never could 
be severed. Every father and mother ought to fol- 
low the example of the heroic Joshua at all these 
points. The remark has often been made that the 
hand that rocks the cradle rules the world; the his- 
tory of many great men fully justifies this statement. 
We know that the mother of Sir Walter Scott was 
a great lover of poetry and painting, and was a 
woman of superior intellectual endowments. The 
mother of Lord Bacon possessed remarkable phil- 
osophical tastes, and made corresponding attain- 
ments in philosophical pursuits. It is known also 
that the mother of Nero was cruel, tyrannical, and 
almost satanic in her spirit and aims. Byron's cyn- 
icism and other defective qualities were due, in no 
small degree, to the violence and ill-temper of his 
mother. The mother of the Wesleys has been called 
" the mother of Methodism." She was remarkable 
for her executive ability, varied intelligence, and 
profound piety. The sons of all these mothers in- 
herited, to a great degree, the qualities which the 
mothers conspicuously possessed. The lives of 
parents are lived over again in the lives of their 
children. This is a fact of great solemnity on the 
one side, and of inspiring possibility on the other 
side. Joshua gives all parents, by his superb resolve, 
a worthy example and a divine inspiration ; it is im- 



THE WORTHIEST RESOLUTION 8l 

possible to exaggerate the value alike of this example 
and inspiration. 

A Practical Resolution. 

It is to be observed, in the third place, that this 
was a Practical resolution — "As for me and my 
house, we will serve the Lord." Here Joshua rightly 
emphasized the value of service toward God. He 
was as practical as he was profound in his religious 
devotion. Religion is worthless, except it be ap- 
plied in daily life. We are saved to serve; and only 
as we serve God by helping our fellow-men, do we 
really show that we are truly saved. Many men 
and women greatly fail at this practical point. They 
unfortunately virtually make the whole of religion 
salvation and not service. They forget that we 
cannot show that we love God, whom we have not 
seen, except as we show our love to our brother 
man whom we daily see. Many parents are most 
devoted in their loyalty to traditional creeds and 
historic catechisms and ritual observances. They 
would not eat meat on Friday, and would not par- 
take of the communion except before the morning 
meal. It would be easy to speak with severity of 
those who are devoted to the mint and anise and 
cummin, while they neglect the weightier matters of 
the law. One is amazed at the childishness of many 
of the instructions given to children, and to commu- 
nicants of mature years, regarding things to be 
avoided during the Lenten season. 

F 



82 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

The requirements of some churches at all these 
points, tend to bring upon all religion the ridicule of 
men of sense. The superstitions which have entered 
into many creeds and practices, make agnosticism 
or even atheism almost inevitable. The result is that 
in countries like Italy and France, when men turn 
away from the superstitions of the church, they 
practically become agnostics or atheists. The only 
religion they have known is one of times and sea- 
sons, of rites and ceremonies, of superstitious be- 
liefs and of creedal traditions; and, when they lose 
faith in these human appointments, they turn away 
from all religion, and thus neglect the divine re- 
quirements. At all these points, Joshua's example 
is most wholesome. He turns our thoughts directly 
to the service of the Lord our God. His religion 
was intensely practical. His example teaches us 
that salvation is subservient to service. True relig- 
ion is always and everywhere sanctified common 
sense. Redemption on our part shows itself in serv- 
ice for God on behalf of our fellow-men. We 
most truly honor God when we most devotedly help 
men carry the burdens of life and render obedience 
to God. The idea of the brotherhood of man is im- 
possible apart from the experience of the Father- 
hood of God; denying God as a Father, we practi- 
cally deny man as a brother. The day will come 
when the Christian church will understand that its 
noblest liturgy, its sublimest creed, its divinest 
theology, will be seen in the lowliest service for 



THE WORTHIEST RESOLUTION 83 

men, recognizing them as God's children, and so 
our brethren in affection. Litanies and liturgies 
may be recited or chanted, filling lofty cathedrals 
with solemn sound, but that sound may be unwel- 
come to God's ear, except the heart of the chanters 
be in their song, and their hand be extended to their 
fellow-men in lowly service for God's glory. 

What is the sweetest thought of heaven? To that 
question various answers will be given. Robert 
Hall, in his paroxysms of physical pain, thought of 
heaven chiefly as rest ; such a conception on his part 
was perfectly natural. Baxter might have thought 
of heaven as a place of unbroken worship. Turn- 
ing to the word of God, we read of the employment 
of the saints of God that " his servants shall serve 
him." This is perhaps the sublimest conception of 
heaven. Many of us would rather live with God 
on earth than with God in heaven, if heaven were a 
place of listless repose or of unbroken song. The 
mind that is active on earth does not want to be 
torpid in heaven. The loftiest anthem that shall 
ever fill heaven's high dome, will be some form of 
service to God, even as the loftiest life on earth is 
the life of lowliest service. Heaven would be in- 
sufferable if it were a place of mental inactivity and 
spiritual torpidity; the thought of heaven is un- 
speakably glorious when it is conceived as a place 
of constant intellectual progress and of profound 
spiritual service of God in forms adapted to a 
spiritual environment. 



84 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

Let us then catch the noble example of Joshua, 
and make our religion intensely practical. This 
conception of our duty to God brings us into right 
relations with him on the one side, and with our 
fellow-men on the other. He may be orthodox in 
his creed, regarded simply as an intellectual belief, 
but he is utterly heterodox in his creed, regarded 
as a spiritual confession of faith in God, who is neg- 
lectful of his duties to his fellow-men. Creeds that 
are not translated into deeds, are worse than use- 
less; they are contemptible in the sight of men and 
abominable in the sight of God. 

A Professed Resolution. 

We notice, in the last place, that Joshua's was a 
Professed resolution. Before this great assembly, 
on this peculiarly solemn occasion, he proclaimed 
his resolution to serve God. He demands that the 
people choose whom they will serve, and then he 
affirms his own determination to serve God, what- 
ever others may do. He knows that the first duty of 
the catechism of life is to serve God with all the 
mind, heart, and soul; he will exalt God above all 
earthly honor, selfish indulgence, or personal interest 
of any kind whatever. In this sacred place, he will 
renounce all sinful idolatries and affirm his devotion 
to all religious duties. Here he will urge the tribes 
to be true to the God of their fathers ; here, in his 
venerable age and his blameless integrity, he will 
affirm his own unwavering devotion to Jehovah. He 



THE WORTHIEST RESOLUTION 85 

recognized alike the honor and responsibility of 
making a choice, and he will declare that choice 
with unwavering heroism, so soon as it has been 
made. 

In this respect, as in all the other respects named, 
the example of Joshua is worthy of our earnest 
imitation. In the presence of the tens of thousands 
of Israel, he makes his great confession of God. He 
certainly made a good confession before many wit- 
nesses. All others might reject God if they chose, 
but he will loyally trust and heroically confess 
Jehovah. His was a religion of decision and con- 
fession ; he would believe with his heart and con- 
fess with his mouth Jehovah as the Lord his God. 
He dared stand alone with God. Thus standing, 
one man is a tremendous majority. 

Christ promised great rewards to those who 
should confess him before men; but he uttered 
solemn warnings to those who should deny him 
before men, affirming that he would deny such be- 
fore his Father who is in heaven. Christ does not 
want secret disciples. Nowhere does he give such 
disciples the slightest encouragement to believe that 
they are true disciples. No government wants sol- 
diers who refuse to wear the uniform of their coun- 
try. No country will permit men to call themselves 
soldiers, if they will not wear their country's uni- 
form and march under their country's flag. Do you 
tell me that you are a true, though a secret, disciple ? 
How do we know? How can we know that you 



86 



THE CHRISTIC REIGN 



are a true disciple ? Come out, O men and women, 
and stand loyally and lovingly for Jesus Christ as 
your personal Lord and Saviour ! I appeal to you, 
men, husbands and fathers, that you to-day make 
the resolution of the heroic Joshua your resolution ! 
When have you spoken to your children about God 
and their duty to serve him throughout their lives? 
Have you ever taken one of your children aside, and 
talked to your son or daughter regarding the things 
of God and their duty toward their Creator in the 
days of their youth? Is not your own example 
standing directly across the path of your children, 
preventing them from accepting and confessing 
Jesus Christ? How can you, fathers, stand at the 
judgment-seat of Christ, meeting your Judge and 
your own children, when you have neglected your 
duty by precept and example toward those chil- 
dren ? I appeal to you, mothers, that you lead your 
sons and daughters to the feet and the heart of 
Jesus Christ ! O bring them in the morning of their 
life into the Master's service, and thus make your 
children doubly your children, by making them and 
yourselves the children of your and their Father in 
heaven! I appeal to you, young men and women, 
and boys and girls, that you to-day begin the service 
of God! Make the resolution of this leader in 
Israel your resolution. 

Silence to-day reigns over the valley of Shechem ; 
only the murmuring sounds in the distant town may 
be heard over parts of the valley. There stand 



THE WORTHIEST RESOLUTION 87 

Mounts Gerizim and Ebal, with all their historic 
associations. Yonder is Jacob's Well, with the 
memory of Jesus sitting upon it at the noonday 
hour; yonder is Joseph's Tomb, with all its historic 
suggestions. The great assembly addressed by 
Joshua has passed away, but his words have echoed 
through the centuries. They fall upon our ears, and 
they move our hearts this morning. A greater as- 
sembly we shall one day behold, when men shall 
come from the east and the west, and the north 
and the south, and shall stand before the great white 
throne of our august Judge. If you confess him 
to-day, you may claim his promise that on that great 
day he will confess you, saying, in words of sub- 
lime authority and matchless tenderness, " Come, ye 
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared 
for you from the foundation of the world." 



VI 

THE NOBLEST CAPACITY 

Text: Only fear Jehovah, and serve him in truth with 
all your heart; for consider how great things he hath done 
for you. — i Sam. 12 : 24. 

THESE are certainly very noble words, and they 
were spoken by one of the grandest men of 
Old Testament times. You will notice that at the 
close of the preceding chapter, we left the assembly 
of the people at Gilgal, where they made Saul king 
before Jehovah. There they offered sacrifices of 
peace offerings, and then Saul and all the men of 
Israel rejoiced greatly. The truly noble Samuel 
then resigned the government into the hands of 
Saul, and in this twelfth chapter we have Samuel's 
speech, when he laid aside his office and the respon- 
sibility which belonged to that office. He opens this 
speech with brave and true words. He challenged 
all to show that his hands had ever been soiled by a 
bribe. He did not know the word " graft." 

This chapter is really Samuel's farewell discourse, 
and Saul's coronation sermon. We have a state- 
ment of the blessings which God had conferred upon 
the people. We then have Samuel's earnest exhor- 
tation that they may remain loyal unto God, and so 



THE NOBLEST CAPACITY 89 

be assured of God's richest blessing. A very re- 
markable man was Samuel; he has been appropri- 
ately compared with Aristides ; and Saul, with equal 
appropriateness, has been compared to Alcibiades. 
The main motive of Samuel's life was to guard the 
rights and liberties of the people, to induce them 
to stand firmly in their loyalty unto God, as the true 
God of Israel. His power as an intercessor is com- 
parable to the power of Moses in that regard. He 
was one of the first of the series of prophets in an 
unbroken line to the end of Old Testament history. 
He was the founder of academies for instruction 
in poetry, in music, in loyalty, and in religion. This 
grand man never appeared grander than when he 
preached the coronation sermon of Saul, and the 
farewell sermon of his own wonderful ministry. 

Man Should Fear God Only. 

Looking now at the text itself, we see, in the first 
place, as illustrative of man's capacity for God, that 
man can Fear God — " Only fear Jehovah." We are 
not, of course, to understand the word fear in the 
sense of a servile acceptance of God's service; rather 
are we to understand by it the spirit of reverence 
toward the person of God, and of manliness in the 
service of God. God's service appeals to all that 
is most manly in man and most womanly in woman. 
A man is never so much a man, nor woman so much 
a woman, as when both are loyal to God in rever- 
ence, and devoted to God in service. How shall you 



90 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

define the word man? What is the origin of the 
English word man? Study carefully your diction- 
ary, and you will discover that it is carried back to a 
Sanscrit root meaning to think, to know. If this be 
the true origin, then the moment you pronounce the 
word man, you have virtually pronounced the word 
thinker. A man is one who thinks, one who rea- 
sons, one who knows. Trace the word into the 
Latin, and you have the word mens, the mind ; trace 
it into English, and you have the word mean, in the 
sense of intend or propose, and also the word mind; 
these go back, without much doubt, to the Sanscrit 
word meaning to think; some etymologists, how- 
ever, doubt whether primitive men could have 
thought of themselves by a term meaning to think. 
A man, if this etymology be correct, is an animal 
who thinks, who reasons, who knows. Can animals 
reason? Sometimes it would seem as if they can. 
Probably no philosopher can clearly draw the line of 
demarcation between animal instinct and human 
reason. It is difficult to say where the instinct of 
animals ends, and where the reason of man begins. 
I ask once more, how shall you define the word 
man? Philosophers and poets all through the ages 
have endeavored to give definitions of man. Plato 
gave this definition : " Man is a two-legged animal 
without feathers." Diogenes heard Plato's defini- 
tion, and the next day he came into the Academy 
with a cock whose feathers he had plucked ; holding 
it before the pupils, he said, " Behold Plato's man! " 



THE NOBLEST CAPACITY 9 1 

Then this clause was added to Plato's definition: 
" With broad flat nails." The definition then be- 
came : "A man is a two-legged animal without feath- 
ers, and with broad, flat nails." That was the best, 
apparently, that Plato could give us in the way of 
a definition of man. Man has been called a " tool- 
making animal " ; and again he has been called " the 
animal that can make a fire." Man has also been 
defined as " a laughing animal " ; and as " an animal 
with thumbs." 

But what really is man? What is his essential 
character? What is that element in man which 
differentiates him from other animals? We may 
say that an element in this differentiation is the 
power of reason; but, as I have already said, it is 
difficult to draw the line between instinct and reason. 
We must go higher still. Man is a religious being; 
that is the distinctive quality in man, as contradis- 
tinguished from other animals. Both Cicero and 
Plutarch call attention to the fact that no people has 
ever been discovered in which there were no traces 
of religious worship. In the anthem of this morn- 
ing, when we had the exhortation, " Come and wor- 
ship," we thus had an appeal to the most universal, 
as well as to the profoundest, instinct in the human 
soul. If Plutarch and Cicero were writing to-day, 
they might make their sentence much stronger than 
they made it of their own time. With all the dis- 
coveries of tribes and nations, none has yet been 
found in which there was not some form of worship. 



92 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

The lowest tribe in darkest Africa bows down at 
least before some fetich. The religious element is 
the distinctive quality in the human soul. Men are 
feeling out after God. Not only on Mars Hill, but 
on the hills and in the valleys of India, and Africa, 
and the Islands of the Sea, men have erected altars 
virtually " To the Unknown God." The duty and 
the privilege of the Christian missionary is to tell 
men and women of God, the true God whom they, 
in some fashion, ignorantly worship. 

Jesus Christ is the true light that lighteth every 
man that has come into the world. Sir Edwin Ar- 
nold sings his sweet song of Buddha as " The Light 
of Asia." We ought to sing a sweeter song of Jesus 
Christ as " The Light of the World." Whatever 
light came from Zoroaster, or Confucius, or Buddha, 
or Brahma, was simply a spark, a ray from the cen- 
tral sun, Jesus Christ, the Sun of the moral uni- 
verse. Man's capacity for God is his crowning 
glory. Man is made a little lower than the angels ; 
he is God-like in his original nature, for in the image 
of God was he made. We can have God dwelling 
in us ; we may become possessors of God, partakers 
of the divine nature. Perhaps there are few words 
in the Bible more wonderful than these : " Let us 
make man in our image." Who are the persons to 
be understood by the word us? Is there not here a 
hint of the Trinity? Who are to be understood by 
the word our? Is there not here another hint of 
the Trinity? Was not that doctrine in germ, even 



THE NOBLEST CAPACITY 93 

in the opening verses of the Book of Genesis? Ap- 
ply that truth to the human life. Man has not come 
from the Father alone ; man has not come from the 
Son alone ; man has not come from the Spirit alone ; 
man is not the offspring of any one member of the 
Godhead. " Let us make man in our image." Man 
sprang out of the very heart of the triune God. 
Every man has in him the elements of the father; 
he has the paternal instinct; he has the maternal 
spirit. God is both father and mother to every 
true man and woman. Man has also the filial in- 
stinct, because he has come from God the Son. 
The sense of sonship, the spirit of sonhood toward 
God is in every man and woman to a greater or less 
degree. But man has not come from God the 
Father, and God the Son alone; he has come from 
God the Spirit as well. Here I am lost in mystery. 
We marvel at the intricate problems suggested by 
the Trinity. I think man is himself a trinity ; he has 
body, soul, and spirit. I cannot understand myself ; 
how can I understand God? I cannot understand 
the trinity in my own life; how can I understand 
the triad that is in the life of God ? 

We find in the New Testament, in one of our 
Lord's parting words, the echo of that creative com- 
mand early in the history of the race. Hear these 
words from the lips of Jesus: " If any man love 
me, he will keep my words; and my Father will 
love him, and we will come unto him, and make our 
abode with him." The triune God may be in a man 



94 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

or woman in some mysterious sense. Man cannot, 
indeed, comprehend God; but man can apprehend 
God. I cannot take the Atlantic into the hollow of 
my hand; but I can take a few drops of the At- 
lantic, and can have the Atlantic in miniature in my 
hand; and, so far as human capacity makes it pos- 
sible, I can have God the Father, God the Son, and 
God the Spirit in my soul. Any man who is living 
without God and without hope, is living below the 
possibilities of his capacities. The man who is liv- 
ing without God, is a man who has deliberately 
taken the crown of manhood from his brow, and 
thrown it into the dust, has deliberately shut his eyes 
to the gleaming light of God's sunshine, has delib- 
erately closed his ears, that he may not hear the cel- 
estial music of divine choirs. O man, woman, I 
appeal to your manliness and to your womanliness ! 
Be a man, be a woman, and not a thing. Be allied to 
angels and God, and not to creeping things and 
Satan. You have a capacity for God. 

Man Should Serve God in Truth. 

It is interesting to observe also, in the second 
place, that this capacity for God shows itself not 
only in reverence, but in Service — " Only fear God 
and serve him." Service follows reverence. A 
deedless creed is less valuable than a creedless deed. 
Better have no creed which you can formulate, if 
only your life be marked by deeds of obedience to 
God and service for man, than to have deedless 



THE NOBLEST CAPACITY 95 

creeds. That is a very imperfect service which has 
not in it the element of reverence; and that is a 
very partial reverence that has not in it the practical 
outcome of service for God and for men. 

It is interesting also to observe that this service 
must be " in truth " ; not in words only, but in acts ; 
and in words and acts which are expressive of the 
deepest love and loyalty of the soul. Truth is com- 
parable to silver that has been seven times refined. 
Truth will set up its banners, and sing its triumphal 
songs, after all its enemies have been driven out of 
the field. Pythagoras said, "If God should appear 
among men, his body would be light and his soul 
would be truth." The very soul of God, if I may 
reverently so speak, is truth. Truth is eternal. 
Truth comes from God, and truth leads us back to 
God. Truth is a crystal stream, pouring forth from 
the very throne of God. Truth is the voice of 
nature, and the voice of God. There is truth in the 
stars, in the breeze, in the flowers, in the streams. 
Truth is the daughter of God, truth is the queen 
of heaven. Let us serve God in truth. 

Truth crushed to earth shall rise again : 
The eternal years of God are hers; 

But error, wounded, writhes with pain, 
And dies among his worshipers. 

Man Should Consider God's Providences. 

And now you will notice, in the third and last 
place, that in reverencing and serving God, we are 



g6 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

to Consider God's Providences — " Only fear Jeho- 
vah, and serve him in truth with all your heart ; for 
consider how great things he hath done for you." 
The trouble with men is that they will not think. 
They are unworthy of the meaning of the word 
man. They will not consider God. " My people 
doth not consider," said God. " The ox knoweth 
his owner, and the ass his master's crib ; but Israel 
doth not know, my people doth not consider." Jesus 
said : " Consider the lilies of the field, how they 
grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin : and yet I 
say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not 
arrayed like one of these." Men are stupid, they 
are dull, they will not consider; they are untrue to 
the meaning of the word man. If they would con- 
sider God, they would be godly. If you would con- 
sider the great things that God hath done for you, 
you would be children of God. It is a reflection on 
your powers of reason, if you are an enemy to 
God. The fact that you are opposed to God, shows 
that you are not thinkers, shows that you are lack- 
ing in mentality. The great thinkers of the world 
to-day, on both sides of the sea, are believers in 
God. There is not in the world to-day, so far as is 
generally known, a great orator, or great poet, or 
profound philosopher, who is opposed to God. 
Thinkers are synonymous with men, and men who 
think deeply and reverently, are men who believe 
in God. The unbeliever is the non-thinker ; the true 
rationalist is the religionist; the non-religionist is 



THE NOBLEST CAPACITY QJ 

the irrationalist. I will not allow any man to put 
rationalism in opposition to religionism. It used to 
be common to hear that done by preachers ; but they 
were narrow preachers. Rationalism is religionism, 
when the rationalism is true, and just, and rational. 
" Come now, and let us reason together," saith God. 
He appeals to reason. Think of the great things 
God did for Israel ; think of the great things God 
has done for us ! We are then to be learners, pupils, 
disciples in God's school. Matriculate to-day in the 
celestial university. Come and make Jesus Christ, 
the world's foremost thinker, your Professor. 
Scholars rule the world. 

Two great things Samuel pressed upon the peo- 
ple, in this sermon, as to the elements of his power : 
teaching and praying. The prophets of Israel were 
greater far than the kings of Israel. With the ex- 
ception of David and Solomon, Israel never had a 
king that would compare, for a moment, with the 
great prophets of Israel. Away, away with your 
kings ; take off their crowns ! Come, ye prophets, ye 
teachers, and receive your coronation! Ye are the 
masters of the world ! What king was comparable 
to Moses, omitting David and Solomon? What 
king to Samuel, to Elijah, to Elisha, to Isaiah, to 
Jeremiah, to Ezekiel? Turn, if you will, from the 
history of Israel and Judah. Study Greece. Who 
ruled Greece ? Call the roll. Her kings ? Her gen- 
erals? No. Who ruled Greece? Socrates, Plato, 
Aristotle, and other great thinkers. Greece was 

G 



98 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

truly ruled by her thinkers, by her teachers, by her 
philosophers. Who has ruled China? Her em- 
perors? Who knows them? How many of them 
could you name ? Emperors — who were they? Who 
ruled and rules China ? Confucius — scholar, thinker. 
Scholars rule the world. It is not otherwise to-day 
in our own America. What is the keystone of our 
national prosperity? Religion. It is the church, 
the aggregation of all Christ-like souls, which is the 
real secret of American greatness. Before me sits 
a cultured Japanese. Let him go back to Japan, as 
he is going soon — scholar, philosopher, Christian, as 
he is — and let him tell his countrymen that the real 
secret of American greatness is the religion of Jesus 
Christ. Francis Bacon was wont to say, " Knowl- 
edge is power." He was right; but it may be power 
for evil, or power for good. When it is right 
knowledge, it is resistless power for good. In its 
last analysis, who administers our government ? The 
Constitution is the power behind the American peo- 
ple's throne. Who made the Constitution? Schol- 
ars, logicians, publicists, thinkers, statesmen. Who 
really carry on great corporations ? Thinkers, schol- 
ars, scientists. Who build our railways, construct 
our bridges, and open up the newer parts of our 
country? Behind the great corporations are men 
who understand the laws of nature, the laws of 
mechanics, and the laws of engineering; men who 
are students, scholars, scient men. Who command 
the ships which sail the wild sea? The captains? 



THE NOBLEST CAPACITY 99 

Yes, in part; but the real sailors are the men who 
are masters of the laws of navigation, who know 
winds, currents, and charts ; men who are possessed 
of scientific knowledge. Who rules this world? 
Jesus Christ. I rode in the railway train from 
Benares ; by my side sat a Brahman, distinguished 
for his high caste; we talked of many things. I 
asked him this question, " Who is the ideal man of 
the world ? " He pulled open his tunic, and showed 
me the yellow threads, indicative of his Brahman- 
istic rank. I asked him again, " Who is the ideal 
man of the race ? Is he Buddha, Brahma, Zoroas- 
ter, Confucius? " He smiled at me sadly for a mo- 
ment ; his voice grew soft ; his spirit became tender ; 
and he said, " The ideal man of the human race is 
Jesus Christ." Will you, men and women, take 
Jesus Christ for your Master? Will you make him 
your ideal ? Will you let Jesus Christ fill your soul ? 
Only thus shall you fully demonstrate your sublime 
capacity for God ; only thus shall you be worthy of 
the name of men and women. 



VII 
THE THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY 

Text: Thirty and seven in all. — 2 Sam. 23 : 39. 

THIS text is taken from the chapter which gives 
us the last words of David. Those last words 
are really a song in highly poetic language. The 
poem contains a glorious prediction of the kingdom 
and conquests of the Messiah. David was not only 
the finest poet in Israel, but he is also the divinest 
poet in Christianity. Thus the sweet psalmist of 
Israel is also the sublime singer in every part of 
the world where revealed religion is preached and 
professed. 

You will notice also that the chapter contains an 
account of the exploits of David's heroes. It is a 
remarkable catalogue of men and events. David 
had the power of attaching men to himself by 
stronger bonds than hooks of steel. The writer of 
this chapter apparently takes peculiar pleasure in 
calling the honor roll of these worthies of David. As 
he reaches the close of the chapter, he sums up all 
that he had said in the words of the text, " Thirty 
and seven in all." 

By a permissible accommodation, I take these 
words of the sacred writer and apply them to the 
100 



THE THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY IOI 

thirty-seven years of this present pastorate. We 
may think of each one of these years as, in hope at 
least, one of the worthies of Him who was David's 
son and David's Lord. 

Peace and Harmony. 

What then are some of the characteristics of these 
years that have gone? We may say, in the first 
place, that they are thirty and seven years of peace 
and harmony. It may seem to some as if that were 
merely a negative virtue, and scarce worth empha- 
sis on this anniversary occasion. Those, however, 
who have been in churches where peace and har- 
mony were wanting, are the most ready rightly to 
estimate their importance. I have always been pro- 
foundly impressed with the motto above the tablets 
behind me. It is found in Hag. 2 : 9. The words 
are these, " In this place will I give peace." When 
I chose that motto, it came to me like an inspiration 
from God. I was charmed alike by its rhetoric, its 
alliteration, and its spiritual meaning. 

It is not meant to be affirmed that there have been 
no differences of opinion amongst us during these 
years. Immobility in position and unanimity in 
thought are found only in cemeteries. Where there 
is life, there will be differences of opinion. But 
Christian gentlemen can differ in opinion without 
losing respect for one another in the deeper and 
nobler relations in life. One lesson which comes to 
us with advancing years is respect for the opinions 



102 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

of others, even while we do not greatly modify our 
own opinions. As I look out over the ministry in 
this city, during the past thirty-seven years, I see 
how churches have been disrupted, how ministers 
have been dismissed, and how some of them have 
been wounded to the heart by differences between 
themselves and their official brethren. 

That sorrow has never been mine; peace and 
harmony have evermore prevailed. I have always 
felt that this result was due, in no small part, to the 
existence of a judicious advisory committee. The 
democratic form of government, in some Baptist 
churches, has been pushed to dangerous extremes. 
Business has been brought into church meetings 
without maturity of preparation, meetings in which 
young boys and girls were often a large proportion 
of the voters, and most unwise results have been 
produced. We can maintain our democratic form 
of government, and yet have all the advantages of 
churches that have vestries, or sessions, or a classis. 
We have had discussions in our advisory committee 
which, if had before a promiscuous audience, might 
have produced schisms in the church. We have 
threshed out differences in that committee room ; 
and we have reached definite conclusions in that 
committee room. No resolution is ever presented 
by the advisory committee to the church until that 
body is a unit regarding that resolution. The pastor 
is, therefore, surrounded by that strong committee 
of representative men, and no arrow of criticism 



THE THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY IO3 

can reach him until it has gone through the bodies 
of those strong laymen. One is sometimes almost 
impatient with brother ministers in the denomina- 
tion because they will not avail themselves of the 
advantages of a wise advisory committee. Such a 
committee is the pastor's cabinet. Yet there are 
pastors all over this State and country who have 
failed to gather about themselves such a committee ; 
these pastors bring business matters, entirely un- 
matured, into the church; a free debate arises, and 
divisions are created. The result in some cases is 
that the pastor either has to use all his personal in- 
fluence to maintain his position, or to vacate that 
position. The officers of this church will readily 
give a confirmation of the statement that serious 
difficulties of discipline have been settled without 
being brought before the church. We managed 
these difficult cases so firmly, so strongly, so wisely, 
and so kindly that they were all settled within the 
limits of that committee room. For our peace and 
harmony we are largely indebted to the existence of 
our advisory committee. 

Work and Worship. 

There have also been thirty and seven years in all 
of zvork and worship. No small amount of work 
has been accomplished. About five thousand per- 
sons have been received in all ways into the fellow- 
ship of this church. There have gone out from us 
two bodies which largely created two other Baptist 



104 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

churches. There have gone out from us large num- 
bers of young men and women who are filling hon- 
orable positions in hundreds of other churches, and 
as pastors in many pulpits. The children of this 
church are scattered all over the United States. 
They are scattered over England, Scotland, Ireland, 
and other countries beyond the sea. Some of them 
are missionaries in many lands. We have a great 
family looking up to Calvary Church as their 
honored and beloved alma mater. 

The work might have been vastly greater if there 
had been more money with which to carry it for- 
ward. Every business man knows that he is often 
greatly limited in his plans and achievements, be- 
cause he has not more capital. No business man can 
realize that fact more than does the pastor of this 
church. My hands repeatedly have been tied for 
want of money to carry on the Lord's work in our 
own immediate parish. We started an Armenian 
work some years ago. It was the most prosperous 
work among the people of that nationality then in 
the city. We had a large number here studying 
God's word and studying English. We had preach- 
ing services with fine audiences. The work had 
finally to be discontinued. Out of that work there 
are two churches of Armenians in this city, in con- 
nection with other denominations than our own. It 
was our work, ours by right of initiative, ours by the 
guiding of God's providence ; but we had to abandon 
it. We began a Persian work. It was carried on in 



THE THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY I05 

a quiet way ; but it was very fruitful. God sent these 
Persians to us. The influence of this church was 
felt in Persia. These Persians were converted ; they 
were baptized. A year ago we were obliged to dis- 
continue that work. There is a prospect now that 
we may be able to resume it in the near future. 

In the same remarkable providence of God, we 
now have a Spanish work under the ministry of 
our brother Don Samuel F. Gordiano. That work 
has achieved wonderful results; it promises still 
greater things even before many months shall pass. 
We are carrying on that work at one-quarter the 
expense which would be incurred if it were turned 
over to any outside organization. We can do work 
here under our roof, with the facilities at our com- 
mand, for from one-eighth to one-quarter the ex- 
pense which any city mission society would be 
obliged to incur in the performance of the same 
amount of work. Receive my thanks this morning 
because you are standing so loyally by this Spanish 
work. 

God gives us in our city and country wonderful 
opportunities for mission work on behalf of foreign- 
ers. Instead of our sending missionaries to all for- 
eign lands at enormous expense, many foreigners 
are paying their own passage to America, to New 
York, and to Calvary Church. Many who were 
brought up in the Roman faith listen in America to 
the blessed evangel of Christ who, in their priest- 
ridden countries, would turn a deaf ear to the truth, 



106 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

and who would violently oppose the missionary of 
Christ. 

But I said that they were years of work and 
worship. We have given great emphasis to the ele- 
ment of worship in our services. The pendulum, 
in the days of the Puritans, swung away from for- 
malism. I shall not criticize the men of that day. 
They had to fight against a formalism that was dan- 
gerous and deadly; and if the Romanists observed 
any religious practice, that was one of the best rea- 
sons why Reformers should do the opposite thing. 
Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Metho- 
dists were, for years, unduly under the influence of 
that Puritan movement. We failed to give suffi- 
cient prominence to the idea of worship in our pub- 
lic services. God put upon me, as far as my own 
thought was concerned, some years ago, a solemn 
sense of duty regarding the fuller restoration of the 
idea of worship in our public services. We took 
some steps in that direction before we left the old 
location. It took all the pluck I had to introduce 
so simple a matter as the responsive reading of the 
Psalms ; although this is the form of the public use 
of the Psalter which assuredly is scriptural. Men 
said that I was on the road to Rome ; some extreme 
conservatives made me, in that regard, the subject 
of special prayer. I said, in reply, that if God 
would only set the Roman Church to reading the 
Bible in public, I would like, in that particular, to go 
to Rome. The first Easter Sunday on which we had 



THE THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY 107 

flowers in the church, goodly numbers left the 
church. One smiles to-day as he recalls those days. 
A deacon in the church refused to have part in tak- 
ing up the offerings, because some passages of 
Scripture were repeated before giving out the 
baskets. We thus have given prominence to the idea 
of worship. We have striven to give dignity and 
stateliness and scripturalness to our public services. 
We have inaugurated a new movement; we are in 
line with the trend of the hour. 

It took all the courage I had to wear a robe in 
the pulpit, and to urge the robing of our quartet. I 
reached that latter conclusion, seated in my chair, 
on the day of President McKinley's funeral serv- 
ice, It was a moment of intense feeling. I looked 
up that day at the variety in dresses, hats, feathers, 
and waistcoats ; and I said to myself regarding the 
plumes and other feathers : " Birds, you will come 
down. This is your last day. Waistcoats, you will 
be covered." The birds came down, the robes went 
on, the colored garments were covered. When the 
question came up as to vestments for our chorus 
choir, it was soon settled. Some years ago we had 
a small chorus choir; on and after the first Sunday 
in May the choir was a flower garden, and every 
color contradicted every other color. Any man with 
any sense of color and harmony could not but wish 
that he could go up into the choir and rearrange, 
if he could not remove, the colors. The robing of 
our present chorus was a great step in advance. It 



108 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

gives quietness, uniformity, harmony, and unob- 
trusiveness to the work of the choir. It is certain 
that the present method must command the approval 
of every right-minded man and woman. 

It is surprising that, when this pastorate was 
begun, there were no uniformed railway conductors 
in America. There were no uniformed policemen 
in New York thirty-seven years ago. Conductors 
and policemen resisted putting on uniforms ; they 
said it was an indignity placed on labor. There 
were no judges in the courts wearing robes in the 
early days of this pastorate. Now robes are worn 
in several courts, and soon they will be in all the 
courts. This is a movement which belongs to the 
times. It is indicative of advancing culture, and of 
progressive civilization. God has enabled us to 
make these thirty and seven years a period of work 
and worship. 

Culture and Christ. 

Permit me to say, in the last place, that they have 
been thirty and seven years of culture and of Christ. 
Culture is a noble word. What does it mean? It 
means tilling, it means plowing, digging, harrowing, 
sowing. That is not a cultured field, large parts of 
which have never felt the plow, or the spade, or the 
harrow. That is not a cultured man, parts of whose 
nature are lying fallow. He may have physical cul- 
ture and be an athlete ; he may have mental culture 
and be an intellectual giant; but if a man's moral 



THE THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY 109 

nature is neglected, he is only partially cultured. 
All parts of the nature, body, soul, and spirit, must 
feel the plow of God, and receive the seed of truth, 
in order that the man may claim the honor of broad 
culture. 

There is a very close relation between culture 
and Christ. All these years Christ has been hon- 
ored, in purpose at least, in this pulpit. Here to-day 
are various flags, beautifully blended, the Stars and 
Stripes and the Union Jack, standing for so much 
that is noblest in history, sublimest in patriotism, 
and divinest in religion; but above all flags must 
wave evermore the banner of Immanuel. I would 
like to be only a voice in this pulpit. I would like 
in some measure, to be another John the Baptist, 
saying of Christ, " He must increase, but I must 
decrease." I want to exalt Christ as my Prophet to 
teach me, my Priest to atone for me, and my King to 
command me. This pulpit belongs to Jesus. All the 
honors are his. 

We have passed, during these thirty-seven years, 
through the sturm und drang period in theological 
thought. We have seen ministers obliged to resign 
their pastorates, and churches disrupted, because of 
theological difficulties. Those difficulties have not 
touched us, in any significant sense. Why? We 
have not been hampered by creeds made by men in 
past ages. I hold, and I shall affirm, that creeds, 
made by men in one age, can be re-made or unmade 
by men in another age. Every age must do its own 



110 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

thinking. You cannot tether a living man to the 
tombstone of a dead theologian, though he be a 
Calvin, or a Luther, or a Knox. Every man must 
work out his own great spiritual problems for him- 
self. Thank God, in our Baptist churches, we are 
not tied down to creeds made hundreds of years ago 
by men who did not know a tithe as much as we 
know of all the problems formulated in creeds. Men 
who belong to churches governed by man-made 
creeds are obliged to lie down on a Procrustean bed ; 
if they stretch themselves at one extremity, their 
feet must be cut off; and if they stretch themselves 
at the other extremity, off must go their ecclesiasti- 
cal heads. We stand for the living word of the 
living Lord; and the Bible has in it an expansive 
power, adapted to the enlarging needs of the hour, 
a power never possessed by creeds made by men. 
The only rule of faith and practice in a Baptist 
church is the word of God. Here we stand; we 
can do no other; God help us to be faithful to the 
end! 

And now, beloved, with no self-complacency re- 
garding the past, but with the profoundest grati- 
tude to Almighty God, we turn our faces to the 
future. Our noblest work is yet to come. With 
God's help, we gird ourselves to-day with greater 
vigor of body, with greater clearness of head; and 
we pray that it may be with greater sweetness, gen- 
tleness, and Christliness of heart for future work. 
Will you give me your hands afresh? Will you 



THE THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY III 

give me your hearts anew ? I want neither hand nor 
heart for myself; but I want hand and heart for 
Christ. Let me take your hand and put it in his 
hand, and then you will strengthen me and I shall 
strengthen you in God, for nobler work on earth and 
ineffable bliss in heaven. 



VIII 

THE COMMENDABLE OBEDIENCE 

Text: When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart 
said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. — Ps. 27 : 8. 

THE text is taken from a noble and inspiring 
psalm. This psalm stirs the blood like the 
blast of a trumpet. It brings before us a sufferer, 
deprived of human comfort, and surrounded by foes 
intent on his destruction. He implores the aid of 
God, and soon he graciously receives divine help. 
Like the psalm which precedes it, and the one which 
follows it, it may refer to the time of Absalom's 
rebellion. 

There is an evident remembrance in the psalm of 
God's sanctuary. The heart of the psalmist rises to 
a joyful trust in God as the psalm reaches its elo- 
quent close. It thus becomes a vehicle of pious 
aspiration for all God's people in times of trial. The 
syntax of the text is very obscure; but its general 
meaning is sufficiently definite. A literal transla- 
tion of the Hebrew would be, " To thee hath said 
my heart, Seek ye my face ; thy face, O Lord, will 
I seek." The idea is that the psalmist's heart had in 
mind God's command, " Seek ye my face," and to 
that command his heart made prompt reply, " Thy 
112 



THE COMMENDABLE OBEDIENCE II3 

face, O Lord, will I seek." The old version very 
clearly gives the meaning of the original, but it has 
added a good many explanatory words. 

Let me emphasize this morning some of the char- 
acteristics of obedience to God which are indorsed 
in this text. First of all, permit me to call atten- 
tion to the promptness of this obedience — " When 
thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto 
thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek." Instantly with 
God's command came the human response. The 
psalmist pleaded no delay; he offered no excuse. 
He immediately complied with the divine command. 
No sooner said than done, is the thought in the 
psalmist's response. " To obey is better than sac- 
rifice," said the prophet Samuel. " To obey," said 
Luther, " is better than to possess the power to 
work miracles." The heart should repeat God's 
commands as the rocks among the Alps repeat the 
notes of the peasant's horn; the peasant blows his 
horn, and instantly its echoes from rock to rock 
and from valley to valley are heard, the response 
being immediate and exact. Obedience is the proof 
of love. Christ said, " If a man love me, he will 
keep my words." We can give no other evidence 
so conclusive of our love as prompt and exact 
obedience. 

The first rule in the order of St. Francis was 
implicit obedience to the commands of the Supe- 
rior. One day a monk was refractory. By order 
of St. Francis, a grave was dug, and the disobedient 

H 



114 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

monk was placed therein. Others were commanded 
to pack in the earth. St. Francis asked, "Are you 
dead ? " No answer came from the disobedient 
monk. " Fill in the earth," was the next command. 
It reaches his breast. "Are you dead?" No an- 
swer. There was in that grave a man almost as 
stern as St. Francis himself. " Fill in the earth," 
it was again ordered. It reaches the man's throat; 
now it covers his chin. The refractory monk, seeing 
only death before him, now yields. He stands with 
his lips just above the earth; he cries out, " I am 
dead ! " He is removed from his grave ; St. Francis 
has triumphed. In a nobler, sweeter, and diviner 
sense, the child of God should be dead to self and to 
sin, and alive only and wholly to Jesus Christ as 
Lord and Master ; and then the moment such a man 
hears the divine command, God will hear the human 
answer, " Thy face, Lord, will I seek." 

Obedience Must be Hearty. 

You will observe also the heartiness of this obedi- 
ence — " My heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, 
will I seek." " With the heart man believeth unto 
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is 
made unto salvation." The psalmist's service was 
no lip service. It is possible for men to render 
creedal obedience to God, while there is no heart 
loyalty given to God. A man may recite creeds by 
the yard, but if his faith is only on his lip, his con- 
fession will never reach the ear of God. God de- 



THE COMMENDABLE OBEDIENCE II5 

mands the heart. God says, " My son, my daugh- 
ter, give me thine heart." God well knows that 
then he will have the lips, the hands, the feet, and 
the entire being. Jacob, for the love of Rachel, was 
willing to serve seven years. How mighty is even 
human love ! How resistless is heart power ! The 
seven years were like a day! Love lightened Ja- 
cob's labor; love filled his sky with light, and his 
heart with joy. How love glowed in his soul so that 
praises were on his lips! When our hearts are in 
God's service then that service becomes easy though 
it leads to the block. 

The executioner asked the heroic Sir Walter Ral- 
eigh how he would have his head lie. Sir Walter 
looks up with a smile and replies, "If only the heart 
be right, it matters not how the head may lie." If 
only our hearts be right with God, our heads shall 
scarcely be wrong with God. Every man is an 
atheist in heart before he is an atheist in head. 
There are few intellectual unbelievers in the world. 
I never met one who was an unbeliever purely 
from intellectual convictions. The heart was es- 
tranged before the head became perplexed. Beau- 
tiful is the psalmist's response, " When thou saidst, 
Seek ye my face ; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, 
Lord, will I seek." 

The Universality of Obedience. 

Observe also the universality of his obedience. 
There is not, so far as I can discover, in this text a 



Il6 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

single qualification placed on his obedience; not one 
limitation is suggested. One of the sweetest words 
spoken by any woman in the New Testament, was 
spoken by Mary the mother of Jesus. Yonder the 
guests were assembled at the wedding in Cana of 
Galilee. A perplexity has arisen about the wine, 
whose supply was failing. The hosts are extremely 
anxious. The servants know not what they shall 
do ; but the mother of Jesus goes to them and says, 
" Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." She was 
not inspired; she was not divine. She does not 
deserve the idolatrous worship often ignorantly or 
wickedly offered her. But she uttered a wholesome 
and sublime truth at this wedding feast. I would 
like to make my sermon this morning, in some 
measure, an echo of her words, " Whatsoever he 
saith unto you, do it." If he says, " Be baptized," 
then be baptized. Do not expect to obey him by 
being rantized, when he commands you to be bap- 
tized. Why stand hesitating when Jesus speaks? 
He is King in Zion. Care not what men may say; 
care wholly for what Jesus says. We can recon- 
struct Tennyson's words, and say regarding Christ's 
commands : 

Ours not to make reply, 

Ours not to reason why, 

Ours but to do and die; 

thus giving strict obedience to the commands of 
Jesus Christ. 

General Havelock visited London when his 






THE COMMENDABLE OBEDIENCE WJ 

honors were multiplied. He had invited a distin- 
guished gentleman to dine. They sat at the table, 
and Mrs. Havelock looked up and said, " Where 
is Henry? Where is Henry?" "Oh!" said Gen- 
eral Havelock, " poor boy, I asked him to wait on 
London Bridge." The general hastened to the 
bridge ; and there in the darkness and chill sat his 
boy. He smiled as his father came up, and said, 
" Father, I did it ; I waited till you came ! " Have- 
lock said, " He is an example of the training of the 
soldier's boy." God grant that our Father in heaven 
may see in us some measure of the true example of 
brave and obedient soldiers of Jesus Christ! 

Obedience Must be Resolute. 

I would have you notice also the resoluteness of 
his obedience — " My heart said unto thee, Thy face, 
Lord, will I seek." We want men with moral back- 
bone. We want men who fear God, and fear none 
beside. God desires men with brains, and men 
with pluck, and men with moral stamina; men 
wholly consecrated to the Lord God. Obedience 
to high ideals of duty gave men like Bright and 
Gladstone, and half a dozen men on our side of the 
sea, their power. 

Character and ability make it possible for Great 
Britain to rule India. I asked a babu what he 
thought of the British courts in India, and quick as 
a flash, he said, " There is not money enough in 
all India to bribe a British judge." The British are 



Il8 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

the most law-abiding people in the world to-day. 
I asked about the native Indian judge. The reply 
was, " The moment the bribe is taken, the case is 
decided." We need men of resolute wills along 
the line of right and duty. We need men who 
believe in God and who will stand by their creed. 
A noble Tory lord twitted John Bright when he 
was ill, sneeringly saying, " Mr. Bright has brain 
disease." Mr. Bright promptly replied, " It may be 
some comfort to the noble lord and to his family to 
know that he is never likely to be afflicted with that 
disease." But many men are afflicted with heart 
disease, and they fail to render right service for 
truth and for God. We want men of decision, men 
who can say, " Yes," and men who can ring out, 
" No," so that the echoes will be heard in all the 
circles in which they move. The world was mas- 
tered by Caesar when he dashed into the Rubicon; 
" the die is cast," he said, as he plunged into the 
stream at the head of his legions. The man who 
could say, " I came, I saw, I conquered," was a 
man to rule the world. We want, in the kingdom 
of God, men of decision. It has been well said that 
on the tombstone of many a man the secret of his 
failure could be written thus : " He dawdled, and 
was always behind time." Many a man fails when 
he might be a force for righteousness if only he 
had resoluteness of will. 

Better like Hector in the field to die, 
Than like a perfumed Paris turn and fly. 



the commendable obedience 119 

Obedience Must be Exact. 

Notice also the exactness of obedience — " When 
thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto 
thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek." The answer is 
most exact. The words of his reply are the echo 
of the command he had received. I am delighted 
as I observe the perfect exactness of this reply. 
Obedience ought always to take the form of exact- 
ness to the command. Frederick Robertson, the 
brilliant preacher of Brighton, has well expressed 
this thought, " Nothing can be love to God which 
does not shape itself into obedience." Then he 
adds : "We remember the anecdote of the Roman 
commander who forbade an engagement with the 
enemy; and the first transgressor against whose 
prohibition was his son. He accepted the challenge 
of the leader of the other host, met, slew, and 
spoiled him ; and then, in triumph, carried the spoils 
to his father's tent. But the Roman father refused 
to recognize the instinct which prompted this act 
as deserving the name of love. Disobedience made 
the act worthy of death ! " Who are we that we 
dare put our wills in opposition to the word of 
Jesus Christ ? When Jesus says, " Believe and be 
baptized," what right have we to take those not 
capable of believing, and make them the subjects 
of baptism, or even of rantism? We must take 
Christ's commands in the order in which they were 
given. Then we shall show that we are loyal sol- 



120 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

diers of Jesus Christ, who has bought us with his 
precious blood, and who is the Captain of our sal- 
vation. 

Obedience Must be Personal. 

Notice, in the last place, the personality of the 
psalmist's obedience — " When thou saidst, Seek ye 
my .face ; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, 
will / seek." We too often pass God's commands 
to others. We apply the sermons, which ought to 
come close home, to our neighbor in the next pew. 
We believe that the appeals made for missions are 
made to our neighbors and not to ourselves. We 
ought to be profoundly impressed with this element 
of personality, that enters into God's commands. 
Often has mention been made in this pulpit of the 
solemnity of personality. It is difficult rightly to 
define personality. We can discover the compo- 
nent parts of the word; but it is difficult to define 
either person or personality. There is a solemnity 
in the thought of the Ego in all of life. The first 
cry of a new-born babe strikes a note which will 
echo through the eternities of God. There is in 
such a birth a new life, a new individuality, a new 
personality. Moses, at the time of the Transfigura- 
tion, had been, in round numbers, about fifteen 
hundred years in heaven; and Elijah, in round 
numbers, about one thousand years ; and yet, on the 
mount of Transfiguration, it was Moses, and not 
Aaron, and not Joshua, but Moses. He had not 



THE COMMENDABLE OBEDIENCE 121 

lost his personality in fifteen hundred years. He 
has not lost it yet. He is Moses still at God's 
throne. So it was and still is and ever will be 
Elijah. It will be you, and you, and I, at the judg- 
ment seat of Christ. It will be you that will hear 
Christ say, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into ever- 
lasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." 
Or it will be you that will hear him say, " Come, 
ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre-' 
pared for you from the foundation of the world." 
Our parents are in us; so are our forebears for 
generations ; but, after all, it is I, I, I ; it is you, 
you, you. We must answer before God; we must 
stand at the judgment-seat of Christ. We must also 
respond to God, when he says, " Seek ye my face." 
O answer God now ! Just now in the quiet of 
this holy place, this house which is none other than 
the house of God, and the gate of heaven. God 
speaks ; listen : " Seek ye my face." Let each one 
reverently say, " Thy face, Lord, will I seek." God 
grant it, for Jesus' sake. 



IX 

THE THREEFOLD POSSESSION 

Text: Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and 
not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and 
my song; he also is become my salvation. — Isa. 12 : 2. 

THIS is a very beautiful text, and it is taken 
from an unusually noble chapter of God's 
word. The twelfth chapter of Isaiah is a song of 
thanksgiving for God's wonderful mercies. The 
eleventh chapter closes with a reference to the de- 
liverance of the nation from the oppression of 
Egyptian bondage, and the twelfth chapter opens 
with a burst of song, because of that deliverance. 
The song, sung by tens of thousands to the music 
of the timbrel and the accompaniment of the dance 
on the Arabian shore of the Red Sea, was the 
model for the song sung by Isaiah, and for the 
subject of our remarks this morning. God is to 
be praised for all his acts of mercy; he is to be 
trusted for all the tokens of his divine favor. Our 
whole lives should be a Te Deum; there is far too 
little praise in the lives of most men and women. 
Often our prayers are selfish. Heaven is a place 
of praise and not of prayer, and our lives on earth 
ought oftener to catch the spirit of heaven with its 
122 



THE THREEFOLD POSSESSION 1 23 

praiseful song, than the spirit of earth with its 
selfish prayers. 

There are three things here affirmed of God in 
his relation to this inspired singer. The first is 
that God has become his strength; second, his 
song; and third, his salvation. 

Divine Salvation. 

The greatest act of God's mercy is his Salvation. 
This word suggests to the mind the sweetest medi- 
tations, and it inspires the heart with the grandest 
and sublimest aspirations. Israel had been saved 
from political servitude, but the salvation here 
named by Isaiah is the salvation which reaches its 
lofty climax in spiritual redemption. We are not 
simply saved from present evil, but we are exalted 
to present good, and to future bliss. 

The first great element of this salvation is our 
redemption from sin; we are delivered from its 
power and, consequently, released from its penalty. 
Salvation also includes our restoration to God, now 
to his favor, and finally to his immediate presence. 
It also includes ultimately our likeness to God; it 
is unlikeness to God which banishes us from God's 
presence. Religion is the binding of the soul to God ; 
irreligion, as I have often reminded you, is ir- 
rational. Religion is the highest possible reason. 
Ungodliness is also unmanliness. I wish that this 
idea had been taught me when a boy. Many boys 
have the idea that to be manly is to be ungodly, 



124 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

that to be religious is to be effeminate. Never was 
there a greater mistake. If you are an irreligious 
man, you are not half the man you would be if 
you were a religious man. The noblest manhood 
is found in godliness ; godliness is Godlikeness. As 
we become like Jesus Christ, we become noble in 
manhood, clarified in intellect, and exalted in char- 
acter. Jesus Christ was the ideal Man of the human 
race, and the race becomes ideal in proportion as 
it becomes like Jesus Christ. He was not a man; 
he was Man. All that is noble in womanhood was 
in Jesus Christ; all that is superb in manhood was 
in Jesus Christ. He gathered up into himself the 
nobilities of all races and all ages; he was Jew and 
he was Gentile. It seems to have been divinely or- 
dained that Gentile blood should flow in the veins of 
Jesus Christ. It is a marvelous thing that, in the 
deepest sense, he belonged exclusively to no race ; but 
that he absorbed all the races. When a Dutch painter 
gives us a Christ, he is a Dutchman; when an 
Italian, he is, to some degree at least, an Italian ; but 
the real Christ was above and beyond the charac- 
teristics of any race, of any country, of any century. 
He was Man, in all that is noblest and divinest in 
humanity. It thus comes to pass that men of the 
Occident and men of the Orient are equally at 
home with Jesus Christ. Men of literacy and men 
of illiteracy are on terms of intimacy with Jesus 
Christ. The profoundest philosopher can sit at his 
feet and learn from his wisdom; and the humblest 



THE THREEFOLD POSSESSION I25 

peasant is equally welcome in the school of Jesus 
Christ. In proportion as we rise above our little- 
ness, our narrowness, and our selfishness into the 
largeness, the sphericity, the orbicularity, the uni- 
versality of Jesus Christ, do we become superb men, 
wearing the crown of honor on our brows, and hav- 
ing the love of God and of man in our hearts. That 
type of manhood is the ideal set before us; and 
salvation, in its largest sense, includes the posses- 
sion of this noble manhood. 

That is an utter misconception of salvation which 
makes it a dexterous scheme whereby a man may 
escape eternal punishment. This thought of relig- 
ion was once quite too much emphasized in exhor- 
tations and sermons. Men should be followers of 
God, if there were no heaven to be won and no hell 
to be shunned; they ought to follow Jesus Christ, 
because only thus is the noble life possible. The 
man who refuses to follow Christ lives in the deep, 
dark, damp dungeon of his soul, instead of dwell- 
ing in the sunny cupola, breathing the air of 
heaven, and basking in the sunshine of God's up- 
lifted face. Such a life is what salvation means; it 
secures a noble manhood; it results in a beautiful 
womanhood. Heaven is not an accident; heaven 
is a consequent; heaven is a resultant. Heaven is 
the logical necessity of the Christly life, the life 
now described. Where a man has salvation in this 
large and true sense, he cannot be kept out of 
heaven; he has in some measure heaven here and 



126 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

now; he is partially in heaven here and now. It 
is true that heaven is in him and he is in heaven 
here on the earth. Heaven and hell are not the 
results of arbitrary enactments of God. They are 
the inevitable results of the lives we live on earth. 
A man who lives for God, by a law of moral at- 
traction, goes upward. All the angels in heaven, 
and all the demons in hades, could not keep such 
a man out of heaven; and the man who lives a 
gross, vulgar, sinful, sensual, devilish life, by a 
law of moral gravitation, goes downward. With 
the utmost reverence be it said, God himself can- 
not, except he should change the laws of the uni- 
verse, keep that man out of hell. He is there now ; 
he has hell in his soul. The life hereafter is only 
an intensification of the life that is here and now. 
No arbitrary decree of God can send men to bliss 
or to woe. All these truths are meant when we 
sing our song of God as our salvation. 

Divine Strength. 

Notice, in the second place, that God is not simply 
our salvation, but God is also our Strength. These 
two thoughts are very closely related; indeed, they 
are inseparable. All our religious services conduce 
to this end ; they are to make us strong in the Lord ; 
they are to develop the noble characters to which 
your attention has been called. Sweet is God's 
promise, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." 
It requires no little strength to live the Christian 



THE THREEFOLD POSSESSION 12? 

life. We are surrounded by foes ; we have to fight 
the battle daily; we are in the enemy's country; 
we are, indeed, marching through it to " fairer 
worlds on high." But we must put on the whole 
armor of God, that we may fight against the wiles 
of Satan. There lies the armor which God has 
provided ; but it is utterly worthless except we put 
it on. Thus the apostle exhorted us to put on the 
whole armor of God. No part must be omitted, 
the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, 
the shoes in which we are to march, the shield of 
faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of 
the Spirit, which is the word of God. All these 
pieces of armor, it is interesting to observe, are de- 
fensive, with but one exception. Only one piece 
of armor is offensive — the sword of the Spirit, 
which is the word of God. God thus becomes our 
strength. No wonder the psalmist sings so joyously 
in the Twenty-seventh psalm, from which we read 
this morning, " The Lord is my light and my salva- 
tion ; whom shall I fear ? " Why should a man fear ? 
" The Lord is the strength of my life ; of whom 
shall I be afraid ? " That psalm is an echo of the 
song of Isaiah, which we are studying this morn- 
ing. Notice the suggestive words, " When the 
wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon 
me to eat up my flesh " — what happened ? Get the 
striking picture clearly in your thought. There 
stands the psalmist; here are the enemies and the 
foes running upon him; now they are near him; 



I 



128 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

they are ready to strike him. He stands still; he 
fears not. Watch the result. See the enemies; 
they are stumbling, reeling, falling; but the psalm- 
ist stands untouched, unharmed, unalarmed ! Could 
anything be more beautiful ? Could any description 
be more inspiring? Gloriously he stands in the 
strength of the Lord his God, while all his foes in 
utter weakness stumble and fall at his feet. 

A little later in this psalm, the writer gives us 
an entirely different picture. It is now the time of 
trouble. The Lord has ready his tabernacle, his 
tent, his pavilion; there is a secret place in that 
tabernacle ; and to that secret place only the Lord's 
intimate friends are admitted. The Lord admits 
not only to the open court, but to the private apart- 
ment in the tent. In the tents of the Arabs, to this 
day, there is a woman's compartment, and it is death 
for a man to go there uninvited. Sisera was in- 
vited by Jael, and he went into the woman's com- 
partment, because there he had every reason to 
believe he would be absolutely safe. She took ad- 
vantage of him, advantage of his weariness, and 
his utter helplessness, and she drove with the huge 
mallet the wooden nail through his brain. But his 
reasoning was right ; that was the safe place. Now 
God has in his pavilion a secret place, and God per- 
mits his saints to rush into the secret place of his 
tabernacle. What foe can ever find a saint who is 
in the secret place of God's tabernacle? What ar- 
row of criticism can ever pierce a child of God 



THE THREEFOLD POSSESSION 120, 

who is hidden in God's pavilion? No wonder the 
psalmist can sing, " Now shall mine head be lifted 
up above mine enemies round about me." When 
a man leans on the Rock of Ages, he is safe. When 
Roderick Dhu blew the blast of his horn, men stood 
up as if they were born out of the sod. When we 
call upon the name of Jesus Christ, his tabernacle 
opens; and entering we stand before the Rock of 
Ages ; and there we shall be safe from all the onsets 
of all our foes. Glory be to God's great and holy 
Name! 

The Divine Song. 

You will notice that God has become our Song. 
This forms the fitting climax of the line of thought 
in this text. Some Christians have God for their 
salvation, and God for their strength, but they have 
not God for their song. The churches are full of 
songless Christians. They are as out of place, be- 
cause songless, as birds would be if songless in a 
grove. When the love of God is in the heart, the 
song of God will be on the lip. A Christian whose 
soul is not stirred by the love of God is a Christian 
whose lips will not move with the song of salva- 
tion. When God is the glory of our salvation and 
our strength, God will be the subject of our song. 
Only those who never knew our God may refuse 
to sing; but those who know his love must sing a 
sweet song regarding that gracious love, even while 
they are passing through this world to " fairer 
I 



I30 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

worlds on high." One reason why I so greatly 
rejoice in the work of our choir is that we give such 
prominence to song, holy song, sacred music. Many 
churches have failed at this point; many congrega- 
tions are silent when they should be songful ; and 
the work of a great chorus is, in part at least, to 
help all the people to praise God with glad hearts 
and with grateful lips. 

We surely can sing of God as he puts forth his 
power to save. Salvation is the very culminating 
point of our sweetest song. Every nation has some 
surpassing event which it celebrates in joyful and 
grateful songs. The songs of a nation are express- 
ive and at the same time determinative, to no small 
degree, of the history of a nation. Our national 
hymn is our national creed. Take the national 
hymn of Great Britain and analyze it, and you 
will find therein echoes of Britain's history; you 
will also find prophetic germs of Britain's future. 
Take the national song of Russia, and you hear 
in it the wail of suffering, and the shout of them 
that triumph. A similar remark will apply to the 
national songs of all the nations of the earth. The 
great event in Israel's history was the deliverance 
from Egyptian bondage; but I venture to say that 
Isaiah, in this chapter, sings of a nobler deliver- 
ance, of a grander salvation, of a diviner triumph. 
Turn to the history of Greece, and you see that 
she can never forget her Thermopylae. Thermopy- 
lae — what does the word mean ? It means the " hot 



THE THREEFOLD POSSESSION I3I 

gates," coming from two Greek words, thermos, 
hot, and pyla, gate. It was a hot gate, indeed; it 
was a gate of death to the foes of Greece ; it was a 
gate of glory to the friends of Greece. There 
was the famous pass leading from Thessaly into 
Locris, and so named from the presence of several 
hot springs; it was the scene of the heroic death 
of Leonidas and his immortal three hundred Spar- 
tans, in their effort to stem the tide of Persian in- 
vasion, 480 b. c. Can Greece ever forget her Ther- 
mopylae? Never, while Greek blood flows through 
Grecian veins. Can Germany forget her Leipsic, 
the scene of two great battles of the utmost im- 
portance, not only in the history of Germany, but 
in the history of all Europe? Can Russia forget 
her Moscow ? Never, while Russian rivers flow 
and Russian hearts beat. Can Britain forget her 
Waterloo? Never, while the sun rises and sets. 
Can you forget the day you won a victory over self 
and sin and Satan, the day you stood erect as a child 
of God, and an heir of glory, with the love of God 
in your heart and the hope of glory in your life? 
Better that your heart should cease to beat, than 
that you should forget that you are a soldier of 
Jesus Christ. All great poets have had their period 
of poetic conversion, their period of new birth, their 
day of manifold regeneration. Shakespeare, Dante, 
Milton, Tennyson, Lowell, Longfellow — these all 
had their new life when they came, in their poetic 
visions, into self-consciousness; this experience 



132 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

was their poetic regeneration, their biogenesis, their 
renaissance. Every man may have his time of 
new birth, the dawn of a new consciousness of a 
nobler manhood and of personal touch with God. 

This experience is the most wonderful moment in 
a boy's life. I can no more forget that experience 
than I can forget my existence. The whole world 
was new to me. God was new; he was a Father 
now; he was a gracious Redeemer now. What a 
little rebel I had been! But now my heart broke, 
my will submitted, my soul melted, and I knelt at 
the feet of Jesus as a penitent boy ; and then I rose 
up a new boy in Christ Jesus. That was the 
Waterloo for my old life. Have you ever known 
an experience somewhat of that character? We 
never come to our noblest self until we have gone 
through the period of consciousness of a new rela- 
tion with God. We have somewhat lost the force 
of these truths, because we have been so mechanical 
in our religion. We need, as Oliver Wendell 
Holmes said, to " depolarize " many of our religious 
phrases, and get our religious thought into new 
terms, the terms of the twentieth century. This ex- 
perience of the new birth, the new relationship to 
God, the new life in Christ is vastly more real than 
any new experience of a scholar, a poet, or a states- 
man, when he comes into relation with his larger 
life in the great world of thought. How well you 
remember when you studied geometry ; perhaps you 
studied it at the first in a purely mechanical way, 



THE THREEFOLD POSSESSION I33 

and then the marvelous science dawned upon you, 
the meaning of angles and triangles, the relation of 
part to part became real; and you were then born 
again, geometrically, into a new scientific world. 
You studied Latin, you recited mechanically ; all for 
a time was meaningless, but gradually the signifi- 
cance of the grammar flashed upon you, the rela- 
tion of the parts in the syntax became significant, 
and you were born again linguistically. Many men 
go along in religion in a mechanical, formal, mean- 
ingless fashion; but the moment a man's heart 
comes into living touch with God, his eyes are 
opened, his ear is opened, his heart is changed, 
and instead of carrying about with him a stone in 
his bosom, he carries a renewed heart. When God 
says, " My son, give me thine heart," he responds, 
" Yes, Lord, here and now.'' 

Is not God speaking to some in this audience this 
morning? Often our sweetest times in this service 
are on stormy days ; the quiet, the hush, the sacred- 
ness, and the conscious presence of God are then 
especially felt. God is speaking to some woman, 
saying, " My daughter, give me thine heart " ; to 
some one of these dear young women in the choir ; 
to some one of these noble men, God is saying, 
" My son, give me thine heart." Make God your 
salvation, your strength, your song this morning. 
You will then learn the first notes of this heavenly 
song, as we bow at the cross of Christ. You will 
then at the last chant the Hallelujah Chorus of that 



134 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

song under heaven's lofty dome. My dear young 
friends, are any of you who sing God's praise now, 
never to sing God's praise in heaven? Are any 
of you to be songful on earth, and songless at death 
and in eternity? Make God, this morning, I be- 
seech you out of an earnest and loving heart, make 
God your salvation, your strength, and your song! 



X 

THE LIFEFUL LOOK 

Text: Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of 
the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. — Isa. 
45 • 22. 

PERHAPS it is permissible to imagine that part 
of the employment of the redeemed in heaven 
is the repetition of the texts of Scripture which 
led to their conversion. One can well suppose that 
such an exercise would greatly honor God's word, 
magnify God's grace, and still more fully celestialize 
the spirits of the redeemed. Such an exercise 
would be greatly profitable to the saints of God 
during their earthly pilgrimage; we can, therefore, 
understand how ennobling and divinizing such an 
experience would be on the part of the saints in 
glory. Augustine, the famous bishop of Hippo, the 
greatest of the Latin Fathers, and one of the most 
eminent doctors of the Western church, would 
recite Romans 13 : 13, and in the recitation he would 
be reminded of the most crucial and, at the same 
time, the most blessed experience of his remarkable 
career. Martin Luther, the heroic reformer, would 
recite with holy joy the words, " The just shall 
live by faith." In the recitation, he would be re- 

i35 



I36 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

minded of his visit to Rome, of his climbing on his 
knees the staircase of Pilate, the santa scala, and of 
his consuming desire to find peace with God by the 
performance of various penances. The light flashed 
upon his soul with the incoming of this passage of 
Scripture. That was the turning-point in his heroic 
career, and one of the blessed moments in the his- 
tory of the Protestant Reformation throughout the 
world. Oliver Cromwell, the greatest man whom 
England has yet produced, would be reminded of 
his thrilling experience when the bullet, which might 
have pierced his heart, was stopped by the Bible 
in his pocket, the bullet resting on the words, " Re- 
joice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart 
cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in 
the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine 
eyes ; but know thou, that for all these things God 
will bring thee into judgment." That was, indeed, 
a thrilling moment in the experience of him who 
afterward became Lord Protector of England, and 
a stronghold of Puritanism in England, and of 
Protestantism throughout the world. Brave and 
immortal John Bunyan would recite the passage,. 
"And yet there is room." That was the Scripture 
which brought hope, joy, and peace to his troubled 
soul. He had long felt that he was too great a 
sinner to receive God's forgiveness, and to enjoy the 
blessing of assured salvation. Light from the recon- 
ciled face of Jesus Christ came to him through 
these words in the parable of our Lord. 



THE LIFEFUL LOOK 137 

Perhaps, however, among all the saints in glory, 
there is no one who would repeat with more ecstatic 
bliss the text which God made the means of his 
conversion, than would Charles Haddon Spurgeon. 
On Sunday morning, January 6, 1856, at New Park 
Street Chapel, Southwark, London, Mr. Spurgeon 
preached on the words chosen as the text this morn- 
ing, " Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends 
of the earth : for I am God, and there is none else." 
Standing before his great audience, he said : " Six 
years ago to-day, as near as possible at this very 
hour of the day, I was ' in the gall of bitterness, 
and in the bonds of iniquity/ but had yet, by divine 
grace, been led to feel the bitterness of that bond- 
age, and to cry out by reason of the soreness of its 
slavery." He then proceeded to tell his audience 
that he did not go with his father to the usual place 
of worship, but as the morning was very snowy, he 
heeded the advice of his mother, and went to the 
chapel of the Primitive Methodists. For a time, 
no minister came; then a tall and slender man en- 
tered the pulpit, and announced as his text the 
words already quoted. Setting his eyes upon Mr. 
Spurgeon, he said, in tones of thunder, " Young 
man, you are in trouble; you will never get out of 
it, unless you look to Christ ! " He then lifted up 
his hands and cried out, as Mr. Spurgeon suggest- 
ively says, as only a Primitive Methodist can, 
" Look ! Look ! " At once Mr. Spurgeon looked to 
Jesus as his personal Saviour. His heart leaped 



I38 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

with joy at that moment. He had been waiting to 
do many things, with the hope that, by so doing, he 
might experience divine forgiveness and spiritual 
joy; but the moment he looked to Jesus, he found 
life in the look. He tells us himself that he could 
almost have looked his eyes away, and that in 
heaven he will look on Jesus still with joy unutter- 
able. That snowy day was the most joyous day 
he had ever known ; it was also a day of unspeakable 
blessing to the whole world. That day the greatest 
preacher since the days of the Apostle Paul experi- 
enced the joy of the new life, and entered upon his 
unique career as the foremost preacher of his time 
and of the centuries. 

The words come to us to-day with great power 
and with corresponding sweetness. One can well 
imagine Mr. Spurgeon greeting the prophet Isaiah 
in heaven with gratitude and joy, because of the 
words spoken by Isaiah and owned of God to the 
conversion of Mr. Spurgeon. That unknown Primi- 
tive Methodist preacher will wear a crown resplend- 
ent with stars; perhaps to Isaiah, under God, will 
largely belong the honors won, through divine 
grace, by Mr. Spurgeon in the salvation of tens of 
thousands in many lands. As we read the words 
of the text, the picture of the old prophet who, 
according to tradition, was sawn asunder during 
the reign of Manasseh, rises before us resistless in 
power and radiant in glory. He has appropriately 
been called the evangelical prophet, and his proph- 



THE LIFEFUL LOOK 1 39 

ecy the fifth Gospel. Gloriously does he tell us 
of Christ's wondrous birth, beneficent life, atoning 
death, and triumphant and everlasting kingdom. 
The simplicity, sweetness, and sublimity of his 
writings show that he was also a man of fine feel- 
ing, poetic genius, and spiritual fervor. As one 
turned away from Jerusalem to London, and lis- 
tened to Mr. Spurgeon, he could, by but a slight 
stretch of the imagination, conceive of the noble 
prophet as restored to life, and standing in the 
midst of the modern Babylon, delivering his earnest 
rebukes, his stirring appeals, and his sublime exhor- 
tations. Let us catch the thought of the evangelical 
prophet, as expressed in the text chosen for the 
morning, the text so wonderfully owned of God in 
the conversion of Mr. Spurgeon, that it has really 
become a Bible classic, and will ever hereafter be 
associated with Mr. Spurgeon's honored and im- 
mortal name. 

A Command Given — " Look Unto Me." 

This command immediately arrests our attention 
and demands our prompt obedience. It is not really 
optional with us whether or not we shall obey this 
command, except that all obedience is optional, our 
destiny depending, however, upon the option we 
shall make. This command rests on a firm founda- 
tion; it carries us back to what is said of God in 
the preceding verse, "A just God and a Saviour." 
These two facts are placed before us without the 



140 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

implication of contradiction in the twofold state- 
ment. God is just and true in the salvation of his 
people; he keeps all his promises in securing their 
salvation. In the cross of Christ, God showed 
himself just, and at the same time divinely mer- 
ciful. In that cross he represented his utter abhor- 
rence of sin, and yet showed his determination to 
make the pardon of sin possible. In the cross, the 
beautiful language of the psalmist has its perfect 
illustration : 

Mercy and Truth are met together, 
Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other. 

The same idea the Apostle Paul expresses in 
writing to the Romans, when he affirms of God, 
" That he might be just, and the justifier of him 
that believeth in Jesus." It is God's highest glory 
that he can be, at the same time, both just and mer- 
ciful; that he can preserve the honor of his law, 
and yet pardon repentant sinners. Human govern- 
ments that constantly exercise mercy become im- 
potent and almost contemptible. Law unassociated 
with penalty ceases to be law, and becomes only 
advice. No human administration can constantly 
exercise mercy and preserve the honor and dignity 
of the law. But what is impossible among men is 
possible with God; he preserves the honor of his 
law, and at the same time, grants forgiveness of sin 
to the utmost degree. It is a marvelous conception 
of God, this union of justice and mercy in the same 



THE LIFEFUL LOOK I4I 

being, each supplementing and honoring the other, 
and both revealing God in the fulness, blessedness, 
and divineness of his holy nature. 

This command shows the perfect simplicity of sal- 
vation — " Look unto me." We must, of course, 
understand that the word look has in it the idea of 
turning unto God. It is almost equivalent to say- 
ing, " Be converted, turn unto the Lord your God." 
It is here clearly implied that all men can turn unto 
God. We are to look to Jesus with the eye of faith. 
This is a look to him as the only Saviour ; it is a 
look that is earnest, humble, hopeful, and trustful. 
We are to gaze upon him with the eye of the soul ; 
that we can so look, and find mercy by looking, is 
no dream of the quietist and no mere meditation of 
the mystic. It is a blessed experience of the most 
practical and rational men who have looked with the 
eye of faith to God, and have experienced life in 
the look. We are to look exclusively to God in 
Jesus Christ; none but God can forgive sin. This 
command humbles all sinners, and most earnestly 
rebukes all unbelievers. It takes from them their 
pride, by robbing them of self-righteousness, as a 
ground of acceptance with God. Men constantly 
tell us that they cannot accept Christ, because they 
have not sufficiently repented. Such men are to be 
reminded that here they are simply commanded to 
look, We must also remember that this is a look 
to Christ in his personal character. We are not to 
look to rites and ceremonies, not to ordinances and 



I42 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

sacraments, not to our own goodness or badness; 
we are to look away from all these things, and lov- 
ingly fix the eye of faith upon our divine Lord and 
Saviour. We may look to him as on the cross of 
Calvary he dies for our sins; and we are to look 
to him as on the throne of heaven he makes 
intercession for our sins. 

We are sometimes told by seekers after Christ 
that they cannot see him. Mr. Spurgeon, in the 
sermon to which I have already referred, reminds 
us that we are not commanded to see him, but only 
to look. Behold the simplicity of the way of sal- 
vation! We have here a command which, in Eng- 
lish, consists of only four letters, and two of them 
are alike. How different God's method of salva- 
tion is from that of sacramentarians and ritualists ! 
We are commanded to set aside all reference to rites 
and ceremonies, and at once look to Jesus, as the 
dying Israelites who had been bitten by the serpents 
turned their eyes toward the brazen serpent. Thus, 
looking by faith, they lived through the power of 
God, symbolized by the serpent of brass exalted in 
obedience to the divine command. As Moses lifted 
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so was Jesus 
Christ lifted up upon the cross. We are to look to 
him as the trustful patient looks to the skilful phys- 
ician, as the drowning man to his deliverer ; so look- 
ing, turning aside from all human means of salva- 
tion, we shall experience the unspeakable bliss of 
joy and peace by believing in Jesus Christ 



THE LIFEFUL LOOK I43 

A Result Stated — "And Be Ye Saved." 

This is an unspeakably blessed result. What is 
salvation, as the word is here employed? There is 
no sweeter word, in any language, than the word 
salvation. All men are really seeking salvation 
in some form. Not all are conscious of the nature 
of their need, nor of the right source by which that 
need can be supplied. Men and women all about 
us are hungry and thirsty, and are striving to sat- 
isfy their hunger and their thirst by the things of 
this life. They need the bread of heaven and the 
water of life ; until they receive these gifts of God, 
their immortal natures will never know true spir- 
itual peace and joy. Only God can satisfy a human 
soul. There is an affecting story told of Heinrich 
Heine, the greatest lyric poet of modern Germany; 
he was called by Matthew Arnold the continuator 
of Goethe. He was prematurely disabled by disease, 
and was utterly weary in body and mind and heart. 
Going into the Louvre in Paris, he saw the famous 
statue of Venus of Milo; this is the remarkable 
statue representing the bewitching goddess of pleas- 
ure in the very perfection of physical beauty and 
charm. It is well known that this statue has lost 
both its arms, although it still preserves much of its 
enchanting beauty. No one who has ever seen this 
statue can forget his first view thereof, as he wan- 
dered through the hall of which it is one of the 
chief adornments. At the feet of this statue, Heine 



144 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

cast himself in utter despair and hopeless remorse. 
He said of the experience : " There I lay a long time 
and wept so passionately that a stone must have 
had compassion on me. The goddess looked down 
compassionately upon me, but she was helpless to 
console me. She looked as if she would say, ' See 
you not that I have no arms and that, therefore, 
I can give you no help ? ' " This is a description 
of unspeakable pathos. The armless goddess could 
not help the despairing poet. All the idols of man's 
imagination, and all the means of salvation of man's 
discovery, are statues without arms. They cannot 
enfold one poor lost soul to the throbbing heart of 
pity and love. We need a Saviour who has arms 
and who has a heart; we need a Saviour with the 
tenderness of a mother and the almightiness of God. 
In Jesus Christ we have both; in him, and in him 
alone, can full salvation be found. 

Salvation implies deliverance from the punish- 
ment of sin, because it is, at the first, deliverance 
from the practice and power of sin. Jesus saves us, 
not in our sins, but from our sins. The very name 
" Jesus " was given him because he was to be the 
Saviour of sinners. Salvation, at the last, results 
from salvation experienced here and now. Heaven 
is the natural outcome of divine grace in the heart, 
while we are upon earth. No man will enter heaven 
there and then, into whose heart heaven has not 
entered here and now. Heaven, in its fullest and 
divinest bliss, is simply the fruition of heaven, in 



THE LIFEFUL LOOK I45 

its germ, as experienced by all true believers when 
they have looked and lived by faith in Jesus Christ. 

The Persons Addressed — "All the Ends of the 
Earth/' 

We are aware that the ancients were accustomed 
to conceive of the earth as a vast plain, having well- 
defined boundaries. This conception of the physical 
universe gives the form of expression found in this 
text. This invitation is to be extended literally to 
the remotest parts of the world. The offer of the 
gospel is universal; all are invited to embrace sal- 
vation, and be saved in harmony with God's bound- 
less love. Nothing is more certain than that God 
is both willing and able to save all who will believe 
in Jesus Christ. There is no passage of Scripture, 
and no decree of the Almighty that limits salvation, 
if men will only accept the divine invitation. None 
are excluded but those who wickedly exclude them- 
selves. God has made ample provision for the sal- 
vation of the whole world. The atonement of Jesus 
Christ is sufficient for the salvation of all men; it 
is efficient for those who believe. God's command 
is literally to be carried to every creature, and it 
is alike the duty and the honor of the church to pro- 
claim the gospel in every land, and to sinners of 
every class. 

Another meaning, however, may well be attached 
to the phrase, " the ends of the earth " ; it may in- 
clude properly sinners of every degree of human 

K 



I46 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

guilt. Preaching one one occasion, Whitefield af- 
firmed that Christ was willing to receive even the 
" devil's castaways." He was the guest of Lady 
Huntingdon at the close of the sermon. At the 
table, with a tone of slight rebuke, she questioned 
the wisdom of the language which he had employed ; 
just then a rap upon the door was heard ; two women 
were admitted. They asked for Mr. Whitefield, 
and upon meeting him, they declared that they be- 
longed to the class described as the " devil's casta- 
ways," and had long given up all hope of receiving 
divine forgiveness, but that his words had given 
them courage to hope for mercy. They knelt before 
God, confessing their manifold sins ; and they went 
away rejoicing in forgiveness, having found life 
for a look at the crucified One. 

There are many persons in all our communities 
who are at " the ends of the earth," so far as de- 
parture from God and degradation in sin can carry 
the sons and daughters of men. There is hope fof 
all such, in the characterization of the persons ad- 
dressed in this text. We are to include, indeed, men 
of all nations, of all circumstances, and of all char- 
acters. We meet, every day, men and women who 
have almost lost all hope of forgiveness from God 
and restoration among their fellow-men. I would, 
in this sermon, include all such among those to 
whom the offer of salvation is graciously sent by 
God through the lips of his preachers. In the 
woman, the Pharisee in his self -righteousness saw 



THE LIFEFUL LOOK 1 47 

only the sinner ; but in the sinner, Jesus Christ in his 
heavenly love saw the woman still. We need to 
learn the sweet lesson which Jesus here so beauti- 
fully teaches all his children. 

The Reason — " For I Am God, and There Is 

None Else." 

There is here a good reason given why men 
should look to God and be saved. Against him we 
have sinned ; as compared with our sins against our 
fellow-men, each must say of his sins against God, 
"Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done 
this evil in thy sight." When our sin is reduced to 
its last analysis, it will be found to be, in its most 
heinous elements, sin against God. He alone can 
forgive our sin ; and to him alone, therefore, we 
must look for that forgiveness. Christ said, " I, if 
I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men 
unto me." Christ has been lifted up upon the cross 
as the divine sacrifice for human sin. We may 
now look to God through Christ with the full assur- 
ance of receiving forgiveness for our sins, however 
numerous and heinous they may be. God can now 
be just, and yet the justifier of those who believe in 
Jesus Christ. 

W T e are to look to God, because he alone can save. 
No priest can forgive sin, except the great High 
Priest who sits upon the mediatorial throne. No 
idol, no man, no angel can save us from the inevit- 
able consequences of unforgiven sin. If, therefore, 



I48 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

any man is to be saved, he must come to God in his 
appointed way, and receive salvation as God's gra- 
cious gift. This text teaches us that God will save 
men of all ages, nations, climes, and degrees of 
guilt, if only they seek mercy through Christ as the 
divine-human Saviour. 

This sermon closes, as it began, by emphasizing 
the divine command, " Look unto me." It is im- 
possible to overstate the importance of this com- 
mand, and the blessedness of prompt and perfect 
obedience to the same. The terms of salvation are 
so simple as to antagonize men who wish, by acts 
of penance and righteousness, to win salvation 
rather than to receive it as God's free gift. Imme- 
diately some men turn away, as did Naaman when 
told that his leprosy might be cured by baptizing 
himself seven times in the Jordan. The folly of 
such men is unspeakably great; they reject God's 
divinest blessings, and expose themselves to God's 
righteous indignation. We ought to look to God 
for salvation, because there is none other to whom 
we can look. We are distinctly informed, in one 
of the verses preceding the text, that " there is none 
beside me " ; and in the text, we are told that " there 
is none else." If we reject God, there is none other 
in the universe who can forgive sin and renew the 
heart by divine grace. Look to him and be saved 
now. Do not ask that you shall see him; you are 
simply commanded to look and to live. You may 
go out of this house to-day redeemed by God's infi- 



THE LIFEFUL LOOK I49 

nite grace and ineffable love. Think once more of 
that self-condemned young man who sat, on the 
snowy Sunday morning, in the corner of the humble 
chapel, and who then and there looked to Jesus 
Christ, and was gloriously saved. Why may not 
you follow his example, and receive the same 
blessed salvation? I hold before you once more 
Jesus Christ, who was lifted up on the cross as 
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. O 
men and women, look and live just now, and learn 
the alphabet of a blessed experience, whose fulness 
even eternity cannot exhaust, as you tell that you 
found life abundant, ecstatic, and eternal, simply 
by a trustful, personal, loving look at the crucified 
One. 



XI 

THE DIVINEST QUESTS 

Text: Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye 
upon him while he is near. — Isa. 55 : 6. 

YOU are all familiar with the chapter from 
which this text is taken. You will recall at 
once that the chapter abounds in sweet invitations 
and in blessed promises. It shows us that the work 
of Christ as a Redeemer permits us to give a uni- 
versal invitation, an invitation to men of all classes, 
colors, and conditions, to come to Jesus Christ and 
be saved. All are invited; salvation is free as the 
air we breathe; the promise of God's mercy is un- 
limited as the sunshine. None are excluded, but 
those who exclude themselves. None are rich 
enough to buy God's salvation ; none are so poor as 
to be unable to secure God's mercy. None are so 
good as not to need God's forgiveness ; none are so 
bad as that they may not receive God's forgiveness. 

The Duty Inculcated. 

I call your attention, in the first place, to the duty 

of seeking the Lord. There are many reasons why 

this duty should be emphasized. Men are ignorant 

of God; nothing is more certain than the existence 

150 



THE DIVINEST QUEST 151 

of this ignorance. God has taken the utmost pains 
to reveal himself to the children of men. All crea- 
tion is a revelation of God. God has two great 
Bibles, the bible of creation and the Bible of reve- 
lation. God's thoughts are written all over this 
physical universe. God's love is seen in creation and 
in providence as truly as in revelation. The bible 
of nature is as truly from God as is the Book of 
revelation. The bible of nature reveals God as 
truly, though not indeed as clearly, as does the Bible 
itself. Preachers and others in earlier days made 
an enormous blunder when they placed the relig- 
ion of nature in opposition to the religion of grace. 
Both are one religion. Nature is as much from 
God as is the Bible. He is the God of the universe. 
He is the God of providence as truly as he is the 
God of revelation; and yet the fact remains that 
men do not know him. One class of men think of 
God as a cruel tyrant, waiting for an opportunity 
to inflict, with his iron rod, his wrath on the chil- 
dren of men. Colonel Ingersoll once said to me, 
" The God I was taught to be the true God, was the 
God who elected a certain number of men to be 
saved, and all the rest to be damned forever." And 
then he said, " I determined to hate him." And I 
said, " Colonel Ingersoll, if God were such a being, 
I too would hate him." He added, " The God I 
was urged to believe in was a God who damned 
forever little babes, because some one did not put 
a few drops of water on their faces." And again I 



152 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

said, " Colonel Ingersoll, if God were such a being, 
I would commend you for hating him; that is the 
God of the Middle Ages, and the God of some peo- 
ple in modern times, who still live in the theological 
atmosphere of the Middle Ages. But you know 
that the God of the Bible — the true God — is a loving 
Father, Friend, and Saviour?" My eyes grew 
moist, and my voice tender, as I said : " Colonel 
Ingersoll, in the name of honesty, why do you not 
turn away from the God of superstition to the God 
of the Bible, and love him, and serve him as your 
Father, Friend, and Saviour ? " Some hyper-Cal- 
vinistic theologians have misrepresented God as 
truly as have agnostics and even atheists. 

Others again go to the opposite extreme, and they 
think of God as a bland, benevolent being who cares 
nothing for the sins of men. Their conception of 
him is represented by the French phrase, " Le bon 
Dieu," a good-natured, easy-going God, who is 
agreeably present when you need him, and com- 
fortably absent when you do not want him. Such 
men are ignorant of God. There is not a man in 
this audience who would refuse to serve God, if 
only he knew God aright. In Ps. 9:10 we read : 
" They that know thy name will put their trust in 
thee." If you have not put your trust in God, it is 
absolutely certain that you do not know God. It 
is, therefore, of the utmost importance that men 
should rightly know God. Men are governed in 
their daily lives by their knowledge of God; our 



THE DIVINEST QUEST 1 53 

conception of Godhood will determine our ideal of 
manhood. Men become, to some degree, like the 
gods they worship. Some heathen people are coarse, 
cruel, and tyrannical, because they worship coarse, 
cruel, brutal, and tyrannical gods. You cannot pos- 
sibly expect a man to be better than his god. If the 
god is bad, the man is certain to be worse; if the 
god is good, the man is likely to make some ap- 
proach toward goodness. In Ps. 115 : 8, we have 
the words regarding heathen gods and their wor- 
shipers : " They that make them are like unto them ; 
so is every one that trusteth in them." It is then of 
the utmost importance that we have correct ideas 
concerning God, in order that we may make some 
approach toward correct actions in our daily lives. 
Bear in mind also that, if we are to know God, 
we must seek for that knowledge. Religion is 
marked by common sense in all its relations. We 
have, unfortunately, often removed religion quite 
too widely from the sphere and atmosphere of sound 
common sense. No man ever becomes religious 
accidentally. The laws of the natural world are 
also the laws of the spiritual world. There is not 
one set of laws for this life and another for the 
life that is to come. Great moral laws sweep 
through the universe. If our lives are fashioned 
in harmony with these laws, they will bear us on to 
success here, and to glory hereafter ; if our lives are 
in opposition to these laws, they will destroy us 
both for this life and for that which is to come. 



154 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

If men want learning, they seek it. If they desire 
wealth, they adopt the means which, according to 
ordinary laws, are sure to eventuate in securing 
wealth. What would you think of a man who de- 
sired learning, sitting down in idleness, neglecting all 
study, refusing to go to college, saying he was just 
waiting until he became learned? What a fool! 
And yet, all over this church this morning, there are 
men equally foolish in regard to religious things. 
What are you waiting for? You say you are not 
prepared to confess Christ and to join the church. 
Were you prepared last year? No. Will you be 
prepared next year, if you remain just as you 
are? No. When are you going to be prepared? 
What steps are you taking to be prepared? What 
are you waiting for? In the name of common 
sense, I ask you, what are you waiting for? Is 
God going to give you a moral earthquake ? Is God 
going to speak to you by an audible voice from 
heaven? For what are you waiting? Is he not 
speaking now by the still small voice of his Spirit? 
Why do you not listen? Why do you not move out 
along the line of God's appointment ? " Seek ye the 
Lord while he may be found " 

The Time Indicated. 

This leads me to speak, in the second place, of the . a 
right time for seeking the Lord. Again this morn- 
ing, as last Sunday morning, I must remind you that 
youth is God's chosen time. Great and precious 



THE DIVINEST QUEST 1 55 

promises are made to those who seek the Lord in 
youth : " I love them that love me ; and those that 
seek me early shall find me." Solemn commands 
are given to us all to seek God in our youth : " Re- 
member now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, 
while the evil days come not, nor the years draw 
nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in 
them." We know that most conversions do occur in 
comparatively early youth. Converted boys and 
girls are the hope of the church. I should feel that 
my ministry was going out in silence, darkness, and 
hopelessness, were it not for the large numbers of 
young men and women who are coming forward in 
this church, to bear its burdens, to share in its 
honors, and to perform its duties. I cannot too 
strongly emphasize the importance of urging our 
children to come to God in their early youth. Some 
of you parents, I fear, are standing in the way of 
your children. You ought to be very grateful that 
we do not let you alone until we feel that we have 
done our duty. If we, as pastors, were indifferent 
to you and your children, you would have occasion 
for legitimate fault-finding; but when we show a 
tender solicitude, you should show an appreciative 
gratitude. We shall not unduly interfere ; we shall 
leave you to the responsibility which belongs to you 
as fathers and mothers. Some of you may live to 
regret the course you choose to pursue. 

Springtime is a good time to be converted. 
There are great laws in the physical universe, whose 



y 



I56 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

importance we cannot afford lightly to estimate. 
We cannot think of Easter as occurring in August 
or July. There was a great philosophy in the selec- 
tion of the time for the heathen festival out of which 
our Easter came ; for Easter was not at all a Chris- 
tian institution originally. It was transformed 
from a purely heathen festival. But why was that 
particular time of the year chosen for a festival in 
honor of Eostre? The answer to that question sug- 
gests the fundamental law underlying the influence 
of the seasons upon moral and intellectual life. It 
is vastly easier for a man to be converted at Easter 
than in midsummer. You cannot go out to breathe 
the sweet air of spring, without feeling the uplift 
in every drop of your blood and in every emotion 
of your soul. It is a thousandfold more easy to 
be in a spiritual frame of mind, when the vital 
forces of nature are throbbing all through this great 
universe. The intellectual and spiritual life feels 
the presence and puissance of these forces. Spring 
is really a new birth; spring is revival; spring is 
regeneration of the earth and all the forces of 
nature. It is tenfold easier to give your heart to 
God, and to begin the Christian life at a time when 
all life is throbbing with the touch of God's finger, 
than at other seasons. Tennyson, in " Locksley 
Hall/' uttered a great truth, when he said: 

In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove ; 
In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts 
of love. 



THE DIVINEST QUEST 1 57 

And in the spring, a young man's or young 
woman's affection ought to turn to God ; for, at this 
season, God is manifesting himself anew in every 
blade of grass, in every bud of flower, in every leaf 
of tree, and in every odor of fragrance. The voice 
of nature, rightly understood, is the voice of God. 

A good time to seek God is a time of religious 
revival, whatever the season of the year may be. 
Then, with special meaning, God's word comes to 
us, " O taste and see that the Lord is good." Then 
we hear afresh the invitation of Moses to Hobab, 
" Come thou with us, and we will do thee good." 
God's people are then aroused; they are then ex- 
tending the invitations of the gospel ; they are then 
quickened in their spiritual life ; and they are ready 
to echo the words of Christ's invitation to all who 
will listen to their voice. I beseech you, men and 
women, who know God, that you repeat these invi- 
tations. O men and women, sow the seed ; speak the 
word ; give the invitation ! For your own soul's 
sake, and for the sake of Christ, win stars for your 
crown. I wonder whether there is any one in this 
audience who is a true Christian and who has never 
won one soul to Christ! Can you recall any one 
whom you have won ? You have never known such 
joy as that of winning souls to Christ. 

It is a good time to seek the Lord when the Spirit 
strives. We then hear the voice of Christ, saying, 
" Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." We 
then hear the Spirit, saying, " To-day if ye will 



158 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

hear his voice, harden not your heart." We hear 
the voice of inspiration saying, " Quench not the 
Spirit." There is a time when God will not be 
near, in the sense in which he is near at other times. 
There is, without doubt, a time when the Spirit 
will not strive, as he strives at other times. There 
is a day of grace in religion, in education, in busi- 
ness, and in social life; and if you neglect that day 
of grace, you never will have an education, you 
never will have social recognition as you might have 
had it, and you never will have business success, such 
as you might have secured. There is nothing arbi- 
trary in God in relation to this matter of a divine call 
and the passing away of the day of grace. I met a * 
man a few weeks ago, who said, " I would give all, 
and ten times more than I now own, if I only had re- 
ceived a college education. My father offered it to 
me, my mother wept tears of sorrow because I re- 
fused father's offer. Now it is too late, the day of 
educational grace is over." He was right. In the 
same spirit, according to similar natural and divine 
law, your day for religious grace will be over. You 
harden your heart, you close your ears, and the 
voice of God's Spirit will neither be heard nor felt. 
I have been in the heart of London at midday, 
when the bells of St. Paul's rang; but their sound 
was not heard. The roar in the streets of that 
modern Babylon silenced the voice of the bells of 
St. Paul's. But I have been in the city near mid- 
night when the bells rang, and their music echoed 



THE DIVINEST QUEST 159 

sweetly all over the old city. God's voice will call, 
but the engagements of life and the pleasures of 
the world will muffle the sound so that you will not 
hear the divine voice. For the moment, nothing is 
said about God's power to withdraw his call. That 
truth is not denied. It is a terribly solemn truth. 
You can say, " No, no, no," to God's Spirit, and 
he will take you at your word, man, woman, child, 
and you will go through life with a stone instead of 
a heart in your bosom. But apart from that side 
of it, this truth has its illustration along the line of 
strict natural law, without the slightest doubt. If 
we are to find God, we must seek God. That is 
the rule everywhere in life; religion is no excep- 
tion. You remember Macaulay's words, in his 
" Lays of Ancient Rome," giving the secret of 
Rome's power : 

For Romans in Rome's quarrels 

Spared neither land nor gold, 
Nor son, nor wife, nor limb, nor life, 

In the brave days of old. 

And when you show a similar earnestness in the 
kingdom of God, the kingdom of God will be yours, 
and its rewards will be yours also. 

The Way Commended. 

This leads me to close, by calling your attention 
to the right way of seeking the Lord. You are to 
seek him in the forsaking of sin. The next verse to 
my text gives us that idea : " Let the wicked f or- 



LS 



l60 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

sake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts ; 
and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have 
mercy upon him ; and to our God, for he will abun- 
dantly pardon." Assuredly the prodigal may comev 
home, but he must leave the swine behind him. He 
may come with his tattered garments, and with the 
stench of the pigsty on his faded robe, but the 
pigs he leaves behind. You must forsake your sins. 
Your heart must be washed and cleansed and made 
white in the blood of the Lamb. How our hearts 
ache, as we think of the Thaw trial in our courts! 
If only those men had become Christians when they 
were boys! Oh, the sorrow, the heartache, which 
ungodly boys cause their mothers! Think of that 
white-haired mother, in trying to save her boy's life, 
revealing her heart, telling her family secrets! It 
is enough to make an angel weep ! Sinners are self- 
ish; they are brutal. Godless boys are willing to 
break their mothers' hearts, and bring their fathers' 
gray hairs down with sorrow to the grave. If a 
man had a spark of manliness in him, he would 
live a decent life, and not break his mother's heart, 
and not dishonor his family name, and not suffuse 
the cheeks of his sisters with shame. You boys 
that are unconverted, and are going out into the 
world without God and without hope, may bring 
equal sorrow to your families. 

You are to seek the Lord also with your whole 
heart. Some seek God with a divided heart. The 
promises of God are very full and very precious 



THE DIVINEST QUEST l6l 

just at that point — " When thou saidst, Seek ye 
my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, 
will I seek." " Blessed are they that seek me with U- 
the whole heart." "And ye shall seek me, and find 
me, when ye shall search for me with all your ^ 
heart." Blessed is the man who can say, " My heart 
is fixed, O God." You can trust that man; he will 
amount to something; but when a man is drawn this 
way by the world, and that way by Christ, the 
Apostle James says of him, " A double-minded man 
is unstable in all his ways." Men never win in life 
except their heart is fixed. Why did Ericsson win ? 
His heart was fixed. See him in a bathroom, con- 
structing a plan for a screw-propeller. Look at 
Edison, studying his first lessons, when he was a 
newsboy on the New York Central road. See Far- 
aday, son of a blacksmith, writing to Sir Humphry 
Davy, asking for employment, and Sir Humphry 
put him to washing bottles. And of him, Tyndall 
finally said, " He is the greatest experimental philos- 
opher the world has ever known." His heart was 
fixed. 

And so I close by urging you to begin to-day by 
casting yourself fully upon God through Jesus 
Christ. It may be your last chance, man. Disraeli 
spoke a great truth when he said, " The secret ofr 
success in life is for a man to be ready for his op- 
portunity." I would like to speak to you in this 
closing half-minute, as if I might never speak to 
you again. Will you seek God just now? Come 

L 



1 62 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

just as you are; come just now in your helplessness. 
Too long you have waited; delay no longer. Seek 
the Lord now, for now is the accepted time, and 
now is the day of salvation. 






XII 
THE PERVASIVE LEAVEN 

Text: Another parable spake he unto them: The king- 
dom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, 
and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leav- 
ened. — Matt, is : S3- 

OUR Lord was the world's greatest teacher. 
Never did men speak more wisely than did his 
enemies when they said, " Never man spake like 
this man." The whole world has been sitting for 
two thousand years at the feet of Jesus Christ and 
learning of him. Men are never prepared to walk 
the dizzy heights of intellectual greatness until they 
have sat in lowly reverence at the feet of the world's 
great Teacher. 

A book has recently been published which at- 
tempts to show that Christ visited India, and spent 
eighteen years there, the period between his visit to 
the temple at twelve and his baptism. The writer 
affirms that Christ studied philosophy among the 
sages of India. This author conclusively shows 
that there was a great commerce between Europe 
and Palestine on the one hand, and India on the 
other hand ; that fact no one denies. But he is very 
weak when he comes to the supposed proofs that 

163 



164 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

Christ ever visited India. We are not at all un- 
willing to accept the statement, if only it can be 
proved that Christ did visit India. Whatever light 
from science and philosophy there was in India 
emanated from Christ. He is the light of the 
world; and every ray that shone into the mind of 
Socrates, or Plato, or Buddha, or Confucius, or 
Zoroaster, came from him who is the Sun of the 
moral universe, and the Light of the world. Jesus 
Christ is, as the Germans say, " Der Einzige," the 
Unique. He stands alone among the world's great 
teachers. To-day science and philosophy are com- 
ing to sit at his feet. To-day the foremost thinkers 
along the lines of sociology are only attempting to 
approach the Sermon on the Mount. There is not 
to-day in any country, or in any science or phi- 
losophy, a man who can be considered as foremost 
in his department of thought who is opposed to the 
teachings of Jesus Christ. 

He did not introduce the teaching of parables. 
He did, however, in this chapter, introduce the para- 
bolic method of instruction, so far as his own public 
teaching was concerned. As this chapter gives us 
the first examples in Christ's teaching of the use of 
parables, so it gives us the largest number of para- 
bles found in any one chapter; we have nowhere 
else " so many and so costly pearls strung upon a 
single thread." The entire scene is strikingly beau- 
tiful. Here we have seven parables; four of them 
spoken while our Lord sat in the boat on the beau- 



THE PERVASIVE LEAVEN 165 

tifui sea of Galilee, the most honored sheet of water 
on this globe ; and three spoken to a smaller circle of 
the disciples in his own home. 

I shall set aside all discussion of the mere 
machinery of the parable, and proceed to the truths 
taught in the text. 

Religion an External Force. 

Your attention is therefore called, in the first 
place, to the fact that religion is an external force 
introduced into our life. The woman took, as we 
are told, the leaven and hid it in three measures of 
meal. True religion is not a philosophy; it is a 
revelation. It is not an evolution ; it is primarily an 
involution. True religion is the gift of God — 
" Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give 
him " ; the water of life is the gift of God. After 
we have partaken thereof, it is within us as a well 
of water springing up into everlasting life. True 
religion is, in its beginning in individual experience, 
an external bestowment. Men cannot by anything 
that is within them inherently develop the noblest 
character and the greatest likeness to Jesus Christ. 
No man can lift himself except he lay hold of some- 
thing without himself. No man can lift himself 
by the straps of his boots. The more he lifts up- 
ward, the more he necessarily presses downward. 
In order that a man may lift himself, he must lay 
hold on some force without himself. It thus comes 
to pass that, when men are conscious of their weak- 



l66 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

ness, and lay hold on Christ, he lifts them above 
themselves, above their environment, above all 
earthly things. The woman took the leaven from 
without, and hid it in three measures of meal. 

Religion a Hidden Force. 

I proceed to say, in the second place, that relig- 
ion thus received becomes an internal force. The 
woman hid the leaven within the meal. The world, 
even to-day, does not fully recognize the presence 
of this divine force in human society. The great 
world of classic Greece and Rome seemed strangely 
unconscious of the new force introduced into the 
life of the time by Jesus Christ. Nothing more sur- 
prises a student of that early day than to read the 
great writers and observe their utter silence regard- 
ing the kingdom of God. How can you account 
for that silence? Here was a force introduced into 
Greek and Roman society which was utterly to revo-. 
lutionize its philosophy, its science, and its religion. 
Here was a force which was to shed a brighter glory 
on the Acropolis than ever flashed forth from Par- 
nassus. Here was a force that was to give greater 
eloquence than was ever heard from any Greek 
bema. Here was a new science which was to revo- 
lutionize every colony of Rome, and finally over- 
turn the throne of the Caesars ; yet the great classical 
writers were apparently almost ignorant of the fact. 
Some of them did, indeed, refer to Christ, calling 
him Chrestus; but they referred to him in a vague, 



THE PERVASIVE LEAVEN 167 

indefinite, and very inadequate manner. It seems 
impossible to account for their ignorance of this 
new force that had been introduced into their civil, 
social, intellectual, and religious life. It was a force 
that not only changed their government, their 
science, their philosophy, and their religion; but it 
changed their language and their literature. Here 
was a divine power put into the old linguistic skin- 
bottles, and it burst them. It was a force which 
gave a new meaning to the words that were 
employed, when it did not create new words. 

The student of language will find no more fruit- 
ful field for his inquiries than the study of the 
changes in meaning that came to Greek and Latin 
words, as the result of this new leaven that was put 
into the linguistic meal. Take the word " love," as 
given us by the New Testament writers. There is 
no word in all Greek literature with the exact mean- 
ing of this word. A new word had to be coined, or 
a new meaning had to be injected into an old word, 
to express the nobler, sublimer, and diviner thought 
of Christianity. Jesus Christ revolutionized archi- 
tecture, law, philosophy, science, government, lit- 
erature, and language. Read the early Latin hymns. 
They possess a rhythm, a sonorousness, a majesty, 
a sublimity not found in other literature of the 
time ; and all these characteristics are fragrant with 
Christian thought. It is not too much to say that 
the leaven of Christ, introduced into the linguistic 
meal of Greek and Latin thought, revolutionized 



l68 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

both languages. Where these early Christian writ- 
ers could find a word into which they could inject 
the new thought, they employed it ; when they could 
not find a word large enough to hold the new wine 
of the kingdom of God, they made a new word. 
Here was a new and majestic force that was in- 
jected into, and hidden in, all the life of that time; 
and yet these far-seeing, these philosophical think- 
ers did not discover the presence of this new force. 
If they did discover it, they minimized it; or they 
tried to deny its presence, and its power, and yet it 
revolutionized both Greece and Rome. It finally 
revolutionized the barbarians who conquered Rome. 

Permeating and Transforming Power. 

I beg you to observe, as the third thought sug- 
gested by this text, that true religion is a pervasive 
and transforming power. The kingdom of Christ, 
in its inception and insignificance, was like the 
stone cut out of the mountain without hands, yet 
that stone ground to powder all opposing powers. 
The kingdom of Christ is represented as a grain 
of mustard seed, which is indeed the smallest of all 
seeds, but which afterward becomes a tree, in the 
branches of which the birds may lodge. The king- 
dom of Christ is dominating the world to-day as 
never before since the Christ was born. It is mar- 
velously interesting, and it is profoundly instructive 
to see how the kingdom of Christ and the truth of 
that kingdom are injecting themselves into the think- 



THE PERVASIVE LEAVEN 169 

ing of men to-day. Here has arisen a class of men, 
in our own country and in other countries, who have 
denied the Virgin birth of Jesus Christ; but they 
have not removed difficulties by their denial. They 
are involved in greater difficulties because of their 
denial. They have not rid history of the Christ. 
How shall they account for Jesus Christ? I find it 
easier to accept the evangelical record of his birth 
than to attempt to account for his life, if I deny that 
record. Here is the " Der Einzige" ; here is the 
unique One of the world. Account for him. You 
cannot account for him by heredity, you cannot by 
environment, you cannot by education ; so far as 
we know, he never sat at the feet of the sages of 
India, or at the feet of the philosophers of Greece 
or of Rome. It is much more likely that the light 
that shone in India emanated from Zion's hill than 
the reverse. How shall you account for Jesus 
Christ? Here is a stream that flowed higher than 
any other stream that ever flowed through the 
human race. Water cannot rise higher than its 
source. I am utterly unable to account for the 
height to which that stream flowed, except as I go 
back and discover its source in the heart of God. 
The unicity of Christ's life demands a correspond- 
ing unicity in Christ's birth. Admitting the unique- 
ness of the birth, I find it easy to account for the 
uniqueness of the life. 

But just at this time, when men are denying the 
possibility of the Virgin birth, science steps forward 



I70 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

and suggests to us the new science known as " par- 
thenogenesis." I know that scientific men are not 
yet fully agreed regarding the possibilities of this 
new science. For myself, I have not a particle of 
doubt but that science will demonstrate, before 
many decades shall pass, the marvelous possibilities 
of parthenogenesis. These possibilities have been 
demonstrated already in certain lower forms of life ; 
they will be demonstrated later in higher forms of 
life, in all probability. What are called miracles 
are only miracles in our thought. To God's thought, 
nothing is natural as opposed to supernatural, or 
supernatural as opposed to natural. To God's 
thought, all things are natural, or supernatural, as 
you may choose to select your terminology. It is 
only we who use these terms. The term super- 
natural is not biblical ; the opposite to natural in the 
Bible is spiritual, not supernatural. The super- 
natural may be over the natural, super, but is not 
against, not contra natural. 

A few years ago, we would have deemed talking 
from New York to Chicago by the long distance 
telephone as utterly supernatural. Why? Because 
we did not know the laws of nature that are in- 
volved in such communication. We have discov- 
ered laws of nature which, a few years ago, we did 
not know. He would be a very rash man who would 
say that we know all the laws of nature to-day. God 
has much more light yet to break forth from his 
Book, and God has much more light to break forth 



THE PERVASIVE LEAVEN I7I 

from his other great book, which we call Nature. 
Revelation is God's written Bible; Nature is God's 
unwritten bible. They are both God's Bibles. In 
revelation the light is brighter, the voice is simpler 
and plainer and sweeter; but it is only one voice 
from whichever book that voice proceeds. Be 
patient, be trustful, be hopeful. Jesus Christ will 
not be dethroned. Jesus Christ rules the world 
to-day, and will continue to rule the world in all 
future years. 

Just when men denied the immortality of the soul 
and the resurrection of the body, science came for- 
ward modestly offering her proofs as to the truth 
of both. There was a time when science was defi- 
ant, agnostic, even atheistic. There may be scien- 
tists still who are agnostic and atheistic; but there 
are other scientists who are theistic and even Chris- 
tic. There is a whole school of scientists earnestly 
at work to establish, if possible, from a scientific 
point of view, the doctrine of the immortality of the 
soul and of the resurrection of the body. Some of 
us, perhaps, do not need the demonstrations of these 
scientists ; others do need them and will accept them. 
These men are trained scientists, with keen percep- 
tion, and with inspiring ambition to discover these 
great truths, and to establish them by demonstra- 
tions of science. Here is a hidden force at work, a 
new leaven, the leaven of a Christie science to estab- 
lish Christian truth. And the great world of agnos- 
ticism is ignorant of these facts, just as ignorant as 



172 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

the great world of Greece and Rome was ignorant 
in the early day regarding this new force that had 
entered into the social, the philosophical, the literary, 
and the religious life of the time. 

Religion a Dominant Force. 

Observe, as I close, that this new force is to be 
dominant and finally triumphant — " till the whole 
was leavened." You see the pervasive character of 
the leaven is seen in that it touches the meal con- 
tiguous to its particles, and this meal is transformed 
into leaven, and it goes on touching all the other 
particles of meal contiguous to itself. There can 
be no finer illustration of the spirit of Christianity 
than that here indicated. 

That is a marvelous inscription on a mosque in 
Damascus, as I reminded some of you on another 
occasion. Damascus, you know, is supposed to be, 
and it probably is, the oldest city in the world. 
There, in a great quadrangle, is a superb mosque. 
It is larger than the mosque of Omar in Jerusalem. 
It was once a Christian church, but was trans- 
formed, like St. Sophia in Constantinople, into a 
Mohammedan mosque. Strangely enough, the in- 
scription over one of the principal doors has been 
allowed to remain. The inscription is this : " Thy 
kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom, and 
thy dominion endureth throughout all generations." 
Is not that a remarkable inscription to be on a Mo- 
hammedan mosque? All the discoveries of science 



THE PERVASIVE LEAVEN 173 

and art are making the fulfilment of that prophecy 
believable. There never was a time when discover- 
ies reached into all departments of human thought 
tinctured with the spirit of Christ as to-day. All 
art, in its noblest forms, is Christian; all music, in 
its most enduring elements, is Christian. But for 
Christ, there would be no Bach, no Beethoven, no 
Haydn, no Handel, and no Mendelssohn. But for 
Christ there would have been no Canova, no Angelo, 
no Raphael. But for Christ there would have been 
no St. Peter's, no St. Paul's. But for Christ, no 
Shakespeare, no Milton, no Tennyson, no Brown- 
ing, no Longfellow, no Lowell. But for Christ 
there would be no telegraphs, no railways, no steam- 
ships, no wireless telegraphy. But for Christ there 
would be no employed electricity. Electricity is a 
spark from the eternal Flame ; electricity is a 
messenger from God's throne ; electricity is a flash 
from God's face. It is God's hand that touches the 
button of the universe. There never was a time 
when these elements were so numerous and impres- 
sive as to-day. Christianity is to spread from pole to 
pole. There are no closed gates in Tibet, and no 
sealed doors in Africa. In 1857, an East India Com- 
pany director said that he would rather welcome the 
devil than a missionary in India. That kind of di- 
rectors are all dead to-day, thank God ! They were 
fools when they were alive. The men of China, and 
India, and Africa all uncovered their heads, at the 
the same moment, when President McKinley's body 



174 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

was laid in the grave. God has made the world a 
whispering gallery ; he has made it resplendent with 
his glory, and vocal with his praise. 

King William IV died in 1837, and it was thirty- 
five days before America knew that he was dead. 
Queen Victoria died in 1901, at 2.30 in the after- 
noon, and that evening there were pages in the New 
York papers on her beautiful character and her no- 
ble life. In 1859, it took one hundred and forty- 
seven days to go from New York to Shanghai ; now 
we go in twenty-five days. A generation and a half 
ago we were all reading Jules Verne's book, 
" Around the World in Eighty Days." It seemed 
marvelous; it seemed Utopian. Now, since the Si- 
berian railway has been completed, we can go around 
the world in thirty-three days and a half. The Bur- 
mese Irawadi will soon see railways on its shores, 
which will carry us to Bhamo and to Mandalay. 
Now you go by rail from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and 
from Damascus to Beirut. Soon you will go by rail 
from Damascus to Mecca, to Nineveh, where Jonah 
preached, and to Babylon, where Nebuchadnezzar 
set up his great image. These are marvelous days in 
which to be alive. You can go now from Glasgow 
to Stanley Falls in twenty-three days. On the 
twenty-sixth of January, 1885, after holding back 
the infuriated hordes for over ten months for re- 
enforcements, which were within two days' march 
of the place, " Chinese " Gordon died, a martyr, at 
Khartum. To-day, you go from Cairo to Khartum, 



THE PERVASIVE LEAVEN 1 75 

five hundred and seventy-five miles, on a railway 
train with sleeping and dining cars. 

God is revolutionizing this world in the interest 
of Jesus Christ. Wireless telegraphy! I stand in 
awe of the wonders of the Almighty. Forward, O 
Jesus Christ, crowned King, triumphant Nazarene, 
diademed Immanuel ! O give us a place in lowly 
reverence at thy feet, and then give us a place to 
work in humble willingness in thy vineyard; and 
then, at the last, with eternal joy may we cast our 
crowns before him, our Lord ! 



XIII 

THE FIVEFOLD WELCOME 

Text: And he arose, and came to his father. But when 
he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had 
compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 
— Luke 15: 20. 

THIS text is taken from a parable which has 
been justly called the crown and pearl of all 
the parables of our Lord. 

In the East, story-telling is a remarkably skil- 
ful art. The moment you land at Tangier, you begin 
to see and hear the story-tellers of the Orient. They 
stand on street corners and rehearse the news of 
the day. The people are not readers to any great 
degree. They have not a daily newspaper; and 
there is thus an immediate and important sphere 
for the story-teller. In addition, these professional 
story-tellers rehearse chapters in the early history 
of the country, of the tribe, or of the nation, to 
which most of the auditors belong. 

We can well understand how Homer recited the 
" Iliad/' because of the examples of somewhat 
similar recitations in our day. I frequently heard 
my father say that when he was a boy in the High- 
lands of Scotland, story-tellers went from house 
176 



THE FIVEFOLD WELCOME I77 

to house, reciting their weird tales. Many of them 
recited in Gaelic; some of them recited in English. 
The poems of Ossian became familiar to many be- 
cause of the recitations of these bards. Sometimes 
they recited original poems, but oftener they re- 
peated the poems of others. They always had large 
and interested audiences. The result was that in 
that day in Scotland, and to this day in many parts 
of the Orient, story-telling is an art most skilfully 
cultivated. In our Lord's time the same method of 
imparting knowledge was practised. He surpassed 
all others in his parables; they are simply match- 
less. Lord Macaulay said of Bunyan's " Holy 
War " that it would have been the noblest and sub- 
limest allegory ever written, had Bunyan not 
written " The Pilgrim's Progress." Only Bunyan 
could surpass Bunyan; only Christ can match 
Christ; and of all his parables, all his stories, there 
is no one so beautiful rhetorically and so instructive 
spiritually as the parable usually known as " The 
Prodigal Son." The name is somewhat unfortunate. 
The title ought to be " The Lost Son." Then the 
title would be in harmony with the titles of the two 
preceding parables, " The Lost Sheep " and " The 
Lost Coin " ; thus " The Lost Son " would give us 
a triad of parables of similar titles. That title also 
would be in harmony with the words of the father 
at the close of the parable, " This my son was dead, 
and is alive again ; he was lost, and is found." 

I know no portion of the New Testament which 

M 



I78 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

gives us so winsome a picture of God. Some medi- 
eval painters have dared attempt portraits of God; 
many of you will recall in European galleries such 
portraits; others of you, who may not have seen 
the originals, have seen copies of those reprehen- 
sible originals. To me such an attempt is well-nigh 
blasphemous. It is abominable in art, and it is 
worse in religion than it is in art. God has been 
represented by those artists as an aged, reverend- 
looking man, face, hair, and beard corresponding to 
the conception of him as extremely old. The 
whole conception is so repugnant to me that I can 
scarcely control my emotions while I am uttering 
these sentences. 

But I stand here to-day to say that medieval theo- 
logians have painted pictures of God more abomi- 
nable than those painted by medieval artists. They 
have done God unspeakable injustice. If they are 
now in God's presence, I hope God has forgiven 
them for the untruthful pictures of him which they 
have given in books on theology, books which have 
been taught in theological seminaries and repro- 
duced in pulpits in many parts of the world. These 
writers carried over into theology the ideas that men 
of the time entertained regarding the Roman gov- 
ernment. Augustine made God a gigantic, colossal, 
tyrannical Caesar. One recognizes the noble ele- 
ments in Augustine's conversion, and in the con- 
secration of his great powers of mind and of soul 
to the service of God; but one cannot help seeing 



THE FIVEFOLD WELCOME 1 79 

how he was influenced by his political environment, 
and by all the conditions of thought and life of his 
time. He took the Roman Caesar and lifted him 
up to the throne of the universe and called him 
God. He has given us a God who is often a brutal 
tyrant and a cruel monster. John Calvin followed, 
in important respects, in the line marked out by 
Augustine. Some of Calvin's principles, carried to 
their logical conclusion, make God a monster of 
such cruelty that he ought to be named Satan and 
not God. Teaching these conceptions of God, 
preachers have often multiplied agnostics and 
atheists. 

Men sometimes sing, " The old-time religion is 
good enough for me." I would like to know what 
old-time religion they mean. I declare to you, be- 
fore God, the old-time religion is not good enough 
for me, unless you have a religion that is older than 
the old-time religion which is generally meant when 
that wretched doggerel is sung. We want the religion 
of Christ, the religion of the New Testament, the 
religion of the apostles, and not the religion of men 
of the time of Augustine, and Calvin, and certain 
others of a later and still others of an intervening 
period. We say, without fear of contradiction, even 
although the language seems harsh, their principles 
have often made God a monster, a tyrant, a pecu- 
liarly fiendish demon. Rather than believe in such a 
God, I would believe that there is no God. 

Some of the ideas of that medieval and later time 



l8o THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

have been perpetuated. Only last week I met a 
woman who expressed the idea that if her babe had 
not some drops of water sprinkled upon its fore- 
head, it would be damned forever. Can any man be- 
lieve in a God who would do that ? Why should man 
or woman be so ignorant, so superstitious, so wicked, 
as to believe that of God ? I told her that her babe 
had no more conscious sin, no more penal guilt, 
than a rose or a lily. To-day the world is full of 
otherwise intelligent men and women who believe 
such awful superstitions regarding God. I repeat, 
they make God a monster of iniquity. 

Over against such superstitions perpetuated by 
ignorant monks of the Middle Ages, I present the 
picture of God painted by Christ in this parable. 
There is a God at whose feet we this morning fall in 
reverent adoration. There is a God whose kiss we 
want on our cheek. Did not Christ know God? 
Did not Christ dwell in the bosom of the Father? 
Was not one purpose of Christ's earthly mission to 
proclaim God ? Did he not stand before his partially 
informed and greatly hesitating disciples and say, 
"He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father?" 
Did he not distinctly declare that one purpose which 
he sincerely cherished, and which he constantly 
illustrated, was to declare God unto men? 

The Eyes of Love. 

In the first place, I emphasize God's eyes of love : 
" But when he was yet a great way off, his father 



THE FIVEFOLD WELCOME l8l 

saw him " — God's eyes of love. Wonderful is this 
picture in all its parts. We have the son's almost 
insolent demand of his father and the father's com- 
pliance with that demand, because the son's heart 
already was alienated from the home and from the 
father. The son's departure is full of suggestion. 
For a time all was merry with him as a marriage 
bell ; money was abundant, friends were numerous, 
life was gay. But now all is gone; money gone, 
friends gone, health gone, hope gone, everything 
gone. Oh, that he had come back home then ! That 
was God's call to him to come home; but instead, 
like sinners of to-day, he went down still further. 
He joined himself — the literal translation of the 
word is, he " pinned " himself, he " glued " himself 
— to a citizen of that country ; and that citizen sent 
him out to feed swine. Here is a boy who would not 
stay in his father's home, and he is now a swine- 
herd; here is a son who refused his father's love, 
and now he has swine for his companions ! The man 
who will turn away from God, will end with swi- 
nish men and women. There is no hope for you, if 
you persist in turning away from God; you will 
inevitably bring up with swine. 

The young man now realizes his condition and 
determines to return. He starts. I observe that 
he does not bring the swine with him. He came 
just as he was, in his filth, in his rags, and with the 
odor of the pigsty; but he left the hogs behind 
him. You will have to leave the swine of sinful 



l82 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

habits behind you when you come to God. The 
filth of the swine is on you ; you may come with it, 
but you must leave the swine themselves behind 
you. 

We may imagine that his father often went up 
to the roof of his house, and earnestly looked out 
over the fields to see if his boy would come back. 
We may imagine that the servants often saw him, 
and they whispered to one another, " Poor master ! 
His heart is on that wandering boy; he cannot for- 
get him." The servants turned away and pretended 
not to see him. They knew too well what it meant. 
But one day, while he is watching from the roof of 
the house, away yonder in the dim distance he des- 
cries some one coming. Only a father's eyes would 
know this boy as his own; his feet are bleeding, his 
face is stained with tears, his fine robes are tattered, 
his once lofty head is bowed, his once supple form 
is stiffened, and he is making his way laboriously 
home ; but his father saw him. 

Let me emphasize two words in that clause. First, 
he saw him, that very boy; he instantly recognized 
him. For the moment, his thought went out to no 
other. He had another son, of! in the fields, who 
was sober, steady, industrious, and prosperous. But, 
for the moment, he forgot that son entirely. The 
shepherd left the ninety and nine, and went off after 
the sheep that was lost. The woman had nine other 
coins ; but in that darkened hovel of hers, she sweeps 
the clay floor, seeking for the coin that was lost. 



THE FIVEFOLD WELCOME 1 83 

And this father's thought is on that wandering boy. 
I beg you also to observe that we ought to empha- 
size the word father — " his father saw him." It 
was the love of a father that went out after that 
boy. He never ceased to love him. Perhaps the 
mother was dead. It is not always possible for 
a parable to go on all-fours, as we say; and the 
mother for some reason is left out. Yet I find in 
this father a suggestion of the mother's tenderness. 

I find in God both father and mother. " Like as 
a father pitieth his children " . . . "as one 
whom his mother comforteth." God is both father 
and mother, and some of you boys and girls have 
turned away from him ! Why do you treat God 
so? Off up in your country home is your father, 
and yonder is your mother ; perhaps you have partly 
forgotten both since you have lived in the city. But 
you have forgotten God more completely than you 
have forgotten your earthly father and your earthly 
mother. God's eyes are on you. His eyes were on 
you last night. Where were you last night? W r hat 
were you doing last night? God saw you; God 
heard you. Your mother did not ; I am glad she did 
not. Your father did not; I am glad he did not. 
I heard of a boy becoming a terrible prodigal a few 
weeks ago, and my first thought was, " How glad I 
am, his father and mother are both dead." He 
would have broken their hearts. You are breaking 
God's heart by your waywardness, by your neglect 
of him, and by living with swine. 



184 the christic reign 

The Heart of Love. 

I beg to call your attention also to the heart of 
love — " his father saw him, and had compassion " 
on him. A wonderful word is our English word, 
" compassion." It is made up of two Latin words, 
just as our word " sympathy " is made up of two 
Greek words; and the words compassion and sym- 
pathy mean exactly the same thing. The thought 
in the one case is expressed in Latin forms, and in 
the other case in Greek forms. It means suffering 
together with, it means fellow-feeling; this is here 
a very strong expression. Love always implies the 
possibility of sorrow. Love is the mother of joy, 
and love is the mother of pain. Pain and pleasure 
are twin children of mother-love. Every child born 
into a home is a new fountain of joy; every child 
is also an additional care and responsibility. Every 
father and mother can understand the meaning of 
this statement, " and had compassion " on him ; this 
is the translation of a strong Greek word. You 
suffer more because of your wandering child than 
the child suffers. You bear the sickness of your 
children ten times over; you would die for your 
child. And do you think you are more loving than 
God? When I think of my love for my children, I 
am ashamed of myself. As moonlight is to sunlight, 
and as water unto wine, so is my love to God's love. 
God's heart is out for you this morning. God is 
panting for you ; he is yearning for you. Never did 



THE FIVEFOLD WELCOME 185 

a mother yearn over an absent child as God yearns 
over you to-day. 

The Feet of Love. 

Permit me, in the next place, to call your attention 
to the feet of love — he " ran." Go back again to that 
home, and see the father on that roof. He has 
caught sight of the coming boy. The stairway is on 
the outside of the house. Travelers in Palestine 
to this day often climb up on a stairway on the out- 
side of the house to go to an upper room. The 
father saw him, and down those stairs he came. He 
forgets his age, he forgets his infirmity, he forgets 
his dignity. The servants see him, and say : " Why, 
look at master ! What has happened ? We never 
saw him run so before. We never saw him so for- 
get the dignities and proprieties of his position and 
the infirmities of his age as he is doing to-day. 
Why is it ? " And they guess at once that that wan- 
dering boy must be coming. Away the father runs. 
The regular road makes a curve; but there is a 
short cut across the lot, and there is a gap in the 
hedge, and away he goes over the lot, and leaps 
through the hedge, forgetting his age, going with all 
his soul after that lost boy. 

I wish sometimes the church could forget its 
dignity. Some church officers and pastors seem to 
think that they are set for saving the conventionali- 
ties of the church life and pulpit dignity. They 
ought to know that a church is set for saving men ; 



l86 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

that is the only purpose for which a church exists 
in this world. Some churchmen have certain tradi- 
tional rules about their church roll, and if a man does 
not come up to these traditional standards, they are 
ready to strike his name off the roll. The church 
exists to save men. If you can save a man by hold- 
ing on to him and going after him, in God's name, 
hold on to him and go after him, whatever may 
happen to your church roll ! " The feet of love " 
— our dear young people illustrated this truth last 
Sunday afternoon in making hundreds of calls on 
our church people in the vicinity of our mission. 
I have had direct reports from many of those calls. 
Young women and young men went into scores of 
homes. What surprises they met ! What warm re- 
ceptions they met also ! Perhaps, in some few cases, 
they met with coldness. Never mind ; you could not 
be hurt, because you were there to represent your 
Master. 

How to-day I would love to find you for Christ ! 
To-day I would go after you on my knees, if I 
could win you to Christ! I would rather never 
preach again, ending my ministry with this sermon, 
than live on and not see Christians built up in their 
most holy faith, and the unconverted brought to 
Jesus Christ. I would rather that my tongue should 
cleave to the roof of my mouth, than that I should 
have its use and not employ it to honor God and 
to save men. Oh, that God would give every 
member of this church the feet of love ! 



the fivefold welcome 1 87 

The Arms of Love. 

I want you to notice also the arms of love — he 
" fell on his neck." Would not any father do it? 
I told you last Sunday night of what I tried to do 
some years ago for a wandering boy for his father's 
sake. He was the filthiest young man who ever 
crossed the threshold of my home. I sent him to 
the bathroom. I clothed him from head to foot. I 
took his clothes with a pair of tongs and threw them 
into the furnace fire. I did it for his father's sake. 
I loved his father when I was a young man, as I 
never loved a young man up to that time in my life, 
and God used me to lead his father to Christ, the 
first person in whose conversion God used me. And 
this was his boy. I did it for his father's sake. 
Would not he have done more for his boy than I 
did? I could not bear to touch his clothes, except 
with a pair of tongs. But his father would have 
put his arms around that boy; and do you think 
that his father is more loving than is God ? O come 
to-day to God's heart ! 

The Kiss of Love. 

And so I close with the kiss of love — " and kissed 
him." There was not a clean spot, I imagine, on 
that boy's cheek. There were germs enough to in- 
oculate the whole family, I am sure, according to 
our mode-n theories. Do you think the father 
stopped to talk about germs ? " Here is my boy ; he 



l88 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

was lost; he is found. He was dead; he is alive 
again. Let me kiss him for his own sake, and for 
his mother's sake, and for my sake." That kiss 
meant much ; it meant forgiveness ; it meant recon- 
ciliation; it meant a welcome; and thus we have a 
fivefold welcome by the father to this wandering 
boy. 

Away yonder among the swine, the boy conned 
over what he was going to say when he would get 
to his father. You remember what he thought he 
would say : " I will say this to father, when I see 
him, ' Father, I have sinned against heaven, and be- 
fore thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy 
son : make me as one of thy hired servants.' " Now 
he has come. Now his father's arms are about his 
neck, and his father's kiss is on his cheek. Do you 
think he will ever get through that sentence which 
away off in the far country he had proposed to ut- 
ter? He begins it. He gets on reasonably well for 
a time. He says, " Father, I have sinned against 
heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to 
be called thy son." There he stopped! He never 
said, " Make me as one of thy hired servants." 
Why ? Two reasons may be given. First, the sense 
of sonship was coming back, the assurance of for- 
giveness was in his heart; and, just then, before he 
reached that part, his father's voice was heard say- 
ing to the servants, " Bring forth the best robe, and 
put it on him ; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes 
on his feet; and bring hither the fatted calf and 



THE FIVEFOLD WELCOME 189 

kill it; and let us eat and be merry." That whole 
scene Christ lifts to heaven. Hear Christ's own 
sweet words : " Likewise, I say unto you, there is 
joy in the presence of the angels of God over one 
sinner that repenteth." 

Come home to your Father's house, and to your 
Father's heart now, and give the angels cause to 
sing a sweeter song and to experience a higher joy 
because one more sinner has repented- 



XIV 

THE INTERROGATIVE CONFESSION 

Text: Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom 
shall we got Thou hast the words of eternal life. — John 
6 : 68. 

THE question in the previous verse was asked 
by our Lord in view of the defection of many 
disciples. They were merely formal disciples; 
they followed Christ partly because of the loaves 
and the fishes. You will observe, by the preced- 
ing verses, that Christ erected a very high standard 
of Christian living. The moment these followers 
discovered the test which he thus applied, they wa- 
vered in their attachment, and some of them turned 
away from following him further. Our Lord was 
peculiarly sensitive to the treatment which he re- 
ceived from men. He was the most perfect gentle- 
man civilization has yet produced. He was the ideal 
Man of the human race. His soul was poetic; his 
nature was esthetic; his heart was immaculate. 
Never was there a man, before or since, who had so 
exquisite an appreciation of what is decorous be- 
tween man and man, and between all men and him- 
self; and when these disciples left off following 
him, his heart was deeply touched. There is great 
190 



THE INTERROGATIVE CONFESSION I9I 

tenderness in his question, as he turned to the twelve 
disciples and asked, " Will ye also go away ? " The 
pronoun ye in the Greek is emphatic; it puts the 
true followers in strong contrast with those who 
were then going away. Christ was genuinely human 
while he was gloriously divine. There is an un- 
speakable pathos in his words when elsewhere he 
said, " The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air 
have nests ; but the Son of man hath not where to 
lay his head." He was houseless, homeless, and 
often friendless. Jesus Christ on the earth was a 
prince in exile; he was the King of glory, absent 
from his palace and from his throne. He had times 
of unspeakable longing for home. As he met the 
rebuffs, taunts, and scorn of men, homesickness 
often filled his soul. Voluntarily he became man, 
submitting to the limitations and humiliations of his 
earthly conditions; and there were times when he 
was distinctly and deeply conscious of those 
humiliations and limitations. 

The question has often arisen as to whether or 
not our Lord really had any fear that these disci- 
ples intended to abandon his service. The true an- 
swer to that question seems to be that they were 
in danger of being swept away by the rising tide 
of unbelief, just as men are in danger to-day from 
the rising tide of historic criticism, and other forms 
of inquiry. In common with others, they saw that 
all their earthly hopes of a temporal kingdom were 
taken away by Christ's declaration of the spiritual- 



192 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

ity of the kingdom which he came to establish. The 
predominant idea of his question was one of tender 
solicitude ; and his words must have had an influence 
in restraining the action of his disciples, did they 
contemplate abandoning his service. 

Peter becomes the mouthpiece of all the disciples. 
He was always ready to speak. An old writer 
quaintly says that Peter had not more of the ear of 
Christ than the other disciples had, but he had more 
of a tongue of his own. We may well ask, where 
else could they go, did they leave Christ? Where 
else can we go ? Peter knew not ; you know not ; and 
I know not. Christ alone has the words of eternal 
life. His words were life-giving. He was, he is, the 
Fountain of life. Could they go to the scribes? 
Could they go to the Pharisees? They were blind 
leaders of the blind. Could they go back to Moses ? 
That would be turning away from the sun in its 
meridian splendor to the gray dawn of the morning. 
Would they go to John the Baptist ? John the Bap- 
tist was only a voice, telling us of Jesus the Christ. 
John the Baptist found his highest honor and his 
greatest glory in saying, " Behold the Lamb of God, 
which taketh away the sin of the world! " Where 
could they go ? To the world ? To sin ? To Satan ? 
If you turn away from Christ, to whom or to what 
will you go? 

I have often found it of great advantage in de- 
termining my course of conduct, to ask myself this 
question, "If I do not this, what then shall I do? 



THE INTERROGATIVE CONFESSION I93 

What course shall I pursue, if I do not adopt this 
course ? " So the question became a very practical 
one for these disciples ; it is an equally practical one 
for us now. Men are still asking this question ; and 
to it various answers are given. I wish to speak of 
some of the answers that occasionally are given. It 
has been my rule all through the years to preach 
down error, if possible, by preaching up truth, rather 
than by attacking error directly. I shall not this 
morning depart from my usual method, although I 
shall give you some side glances at error, while we 
are preaching up the truth. I allude to these errors 
in the spirit of the poet Aaron Hill, who said : 

Tenderhearted stroke a nettle, 
And it stings you for your pains; 

Grasp it like a man of mettle, 
And it soft as silk remains. 

Shall You Go to Atheism ? 

Shall we go to atheists and Atheism ? You must 
go somewhere. Shall we go to atheism? What is 
atheism? Look at the composition of the word. It 
comes from a, or alpha, privative, and theos, God. 
Many definitions of atheism have been given. Athe- 
ism meant one thing at one time, and another thing 
at another time. Among the early Greeks, atheism 
meant disbelief in the gods of heathen mythology. 
Socrates was called an atheist because he dared 
question the existence of these mythological deities. 
In the early days of Christianity, many Christians 

N 



194 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

were called atheists by the heathen, because they re- 
pudiated heathen deities. What definition shall we 
give of atheism at this moment? I would say that 
atheism is any system of opinion which leads to the 
denial of the existence of God, as a living, personal 
Being, and as the Creator, Ruler, and Lord of the 
world. In its scientific aspect, I think there are no 
atheists. Scientific atheism is practically dead; it is 
as extinct as the " dodo." I do not know to-day 
in any literature, the literature of science or philoso- 
phy or theology, a great thinker who is a scientific 
atheist. The day of scientific atheism is past ; I 
doubt much whether it will ever return. But, in its 
practical aspect, atheists abound. Practically any 
man is an atheist who lives without God, who lives 
as if there were no God. Practical atheism is com- 
mon, is dangerous, is deadly. Bacon has well said, 
"A little philosophy inclineth men's minds to athe- 
ism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds 
to religion." Literally true also is the observation 
of Plato in his " Laws," when he says that, "Athe- 
ism is a disease of the soul before it becomes an 
error of the understanding." Men become atheistic 
in heart, before they become even agnostic in head. 
According to the psalmist, it was a fool who said, 
" no God." The fool also said this in his heart : 
for the head even of a fool knew better. There 
are many men who live as if God were dead. If it 
could be authoritatively announced at twelve o'clock 
to-day that God was dead, no change would these 






THE INTERROGATIVE CONFESSION I95 

men make in their modes of thought or their 
methods of life. They rise from their beds, and 
they seek their beds, and they eat their food, and 
they attend to their business, as if there were no 
God. God is not in their thoughts ; he is not in any 
of their ways. For them, to all intents and pur- 
poses, there is no God. This is a terrible picture of 
life. This conception of life takes away from us 
all that is above us to excite our awe and to evoke 
our adoration; it takes away from us all that is 
around us that is dearest in life, to awake our ten- 
derness and to educe our affection. I beseech you, 
men and women, that you go this morning to Jesus 
Christ as personal Lord and Saviour. If you have 
not already gone to him, you are living without 
God, without hope, and without the highest and 
divinest life. To whom shall you go? To Jesus 
Christ. He alone has the words of eternal life. 

Shall You Go to Materialism? 

Shall you go to Materialism? Materialism has 
many forms. Its lowest form is that which identifies 
mind with matter, and thought with motion. It is 
thus the twin brother of atheism. It must ever be 
so. He who denies the existence of God, must deny 
the spiritual personality of man. Atheism and mate- 
rialism play into each other; practically they are 
one. Materialism is an old philosophical concep- 
tion. We find it among the heathen of many types ; 
we find it among the Sadducees in Christ's time. 



I96 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

Pantheists in ancient and in modern days are, to a 
greater or less degree, materialists. Materialism is 
the gospel of the flesh ; it is, as Carlyle called it, the 
gospel of dirt. The moral of materialism is to pro- 
duce plenty of phosphorus by good eating and good 
drinking ; its practical suggestion is, " let us eat and 
drink, for to-morrow we die." The lowest form of 
materialism is, according to the crude theories of 
Cabanis and Moleschott, that the brain secretes 
thought as the liver secretes bile. We are thus what 
we eat; we are animals. If we are only animals, 
and die as the beasts die, naturally we shall live as 
the beasts live. Here again I have to say, with 
sorrow, that many are practically materialists. 
They eat, drink, and live without thought of their 
spiritual natures, or of their relation to God. They 
devote all their energies to gain and to pleasure. 
They live for time and sense; they are under the 
tyranny of the present. Like Esau, they sell their 
spiritual and immortal birthright for a mess of pot- 
tage. They rob themselves of their highest honor. 
They take the crown of manhood from their brows, 
and hurl it in the mire, and then trample it therein. 
What shall you do? Go to Christ. He alone has 
the words of eternal life. 

Shall You Go to Rationalism ? 

Shall you go to Rationalism f I have sometimes 
felt that the preachers whom I heard in early years 
did a great injustice to truth, because they were 



THE INTERROGATIVE CONFESSION IQ7 



always denouncing rationalism as opposed to relig- 
ion. There is, indeed, a type of rationalism that is 
opposed to religion ; it is a rationalism deduced 
from reason and opposed to revelation; it is an ex- 
cessive deference to reason, but not reason in its 
highest form. True rationalism is in harmony with 
true religion. The irrational man is the irreligious 
man; the truly rational man is the genuinely relig- 
ious man. Rationalism in religion has its place; 
religion may be above reason, but it is never con- 
trary to reason. Religion is the highest reason. You 
climb the ladder of rationalism, round by round, un- 
til you reach its top, and then you reach out your 
hand in the dark ; reason is unable to carry you far- 
ther, but there you can grasp the hand and hear 
the voice of God as your Friend, Saviour, and 
Father. Rationalism has its sphere, and within that 
sphere it is authoritative. I repeat, reason and faith 
are not antagonistic to each other. They are 
working toward the same end. 

When the great tunnel of Saint Gothard was con- 
structed, workmen bored simultaneously from either 
side of the Alps. For nearly ten years, they worked 
in the dark; but in 1881, one of the parties of work- 
men began to hear, through the lessening thickness 
of intervening rocks, the sounds of the hammer 
and the voices of the workmen from the other side. 
On they worked, listening, working, working, listen- 
ing. One day they broke the intervening barrier 
down; men rushed from the other side, grasped 



I98 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

hands, and looked into each other's faces. They 
worked from opposite sides ; but they were doing the 
same work. Precisely so is it with reason and 
faith; they are working from opposite sides toward 
the same end. It is a work of great spiritual engi- 
neering that brings these two sets of workmen, the 
disciples of reason and the disciples of faith, 
together in the heart of a mountain, or in the center 
of a tunnel, illumined by the light of Jesus Christ. 
Whither shall you go ? To Jesus Christ, bringing all 
your rationalism that is true with you; for Christ 
alone has the words of the noblest rationalism and 
of eternal life. 

Shall You Go to Agnosticism? 

Whither shall you go? To Agnosticism, so some 
say. What is agnosticism ? It is a theory of things 
which neither affirms nor denies the existence of 
God. It is the doctrine of nescience, or the theory 
which maintains that men cannot have any real 
knowledge of anything, but only impressions. With 
reference to theism, it is a condition of suspended 
judgment; it simply affirms that upon existing 
knowledge the being of God is unknown. Some- 
times, the word agnosticism is equivalent to the 
belief that the being of God is not merely unknown, 
but is unknowable. What agnostics probably really 
mean, when they say that God is unknowable, is that 
God is unfathomable. It is true that, in the third 
century of church history, the term agnosticism was 



THE INTERROGATIVE CONFESSION 199 

used by a sect, implying that God did not know all 
things; but that use of the word is unknown now. 
Agnostics are numerous. There is a gnosticism 
which is condemnable; and there is an agnosticism 
which is commendable. But there is also a repre- 
hensible agnosticism. Who first used the word ag- 
nostic? It is comparatively a new word. You will 
not find it in the older dictionaries. We have be- 
come so used to it now, that it is difficult for us to 
realize that it was unknown until a few years ago. 
Air. Huxley, in his " Essays Upon Some Contro- 
verted Questions," tells us that almost all his col- 
leagues in the philosophical society, to which he be- 
longed, were " ists " of some sort ; " and I, the man 
without a rag of a label, . . . took thought and 
invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title 
of 'Agnostic' It came into my head as suggestively 
antithetic to the title ' Gnostic ' of church history." 
We are thus indebted to him for this word. Re- 
garding many things, every man is an agnostic. 
Regarding other things, all men are most joyously 
gnostic. Regarding still other things, a man may be 
neither a gnostic nor an agnostic. We may take 
refuge in another word recently coined, the word 
merognostic. Regarding certain things, a man may 
emphatically say I know; he can say with Job, " I 
know that my Redeemer liveth." He can say with 
the blind man, whose sight was restored by Christ, 
" I know that, whereas I was blind, now I see." 
He can say with Paul, " I know whom I have be- 



200 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

lieved, and am persuaded that he is able to keep 
that which I have committed unto him against that 
day." He can say with the beloved John, " We 
know that we have passed from death unto life, be- 
cause we love the brethren." In regard to all these 
things, one may be a gnostic. Regarding many other 
things, one has to be an agnostic. No man knows 
anything fully. I can apprehend God; I cannot 
comprehend God. Tennyson was right when he 
said: 

Flower in the crannied wall, 

I pluck you out of the crannies ; 

I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 

Little flower — but if I could understand 

What you are, root and all, and all in all, 

I should know what God and man is. 

I cannot understand this rose all in all. How then 
can I understand you ? How can I understand God ? 
How can I comprehend God ? But I can know, and 
I do know that God is my Father, that God is my 
Saviour, and that I am his redeemed child, born 
for eternity and on my way to his bosom; and all 
the skeptics in the universe cannot take that 
knowledge out of my soul. 

I said a moment ago that there was recently 
coined a new word. It is a very suggestive word. 
Dr. Joseph Cook, when lecturing in Tremont Tem- 
ple, Boston, used these words : " It is not true that 
we know everything, nor is it true that we know 
nothing. It is true that we know in part. Between 



THE INTERROGATIVE CONFESSION 201 

gnosticism and agnosticism stands the sound phi- 
losophy of knowing in part." He went from Boston 
to Princeton, New Jersey, and talking with Doctor 
McCosh, said : " I want a word. It is in no dic- 
tionary. I want a word to express the idea of 
knowledge between gnosticism and agnosticism, of 
knowing in part." Doctor McCosh thought a mo- 
ment, and then, in his quaint Scotch brogue, he said : 
" Wait a bit, till I get my Greek Testament." And 
away he ran, and got his Greek Testament. He 
asked, " What did the Apostle Paul say about know- 
ing in part ? " He turned to First Corinthians, the 
thirteenth chapter and the twelfth verse, where the 
apostle says, " Now I know in part " ; and he took 
the Greek word for in part, and the Greek word for 
know, and putting them together, he gave us the 
word " merognostic," descriptive of one who knows 
in part Every thoughtful man must be a mero- 
gnostic. Some things he knows, and he would die 
for them ; some things he does not know, and never 
can know. Some things he knows in part, and even 
this partial knowledge is peculiarly dear. 

Shall You Go to Churchism ? 

Shall you go to Churchism ? Those who are ac- 
customed to hear me, know that I never make light 
of the church of God ; on the contrary, I honor the 
church as the bride of Christ. But there is a dan- 
gerous churchism. There is in some creeds an un- 
due exaltation of the church. The church is made 



202 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

practically God. There is often a churchianity which 
is antagonistic to a true Christianity. The Roman 
Church is the most gigantic trust beneath God's 
heavens ; it claims a monopoly of salvation. It dis- 
tinctly affirms that outside its pale there is no sal- 
vation. It makes the church the fountain of saving 
grace, and it makes the priests the channels through 
which that grace flows. What is the distinctive 
element contradistinguishing true Protestantism 
from Romanism ? I might mention the mass ; in im- 
portant respects, the mass is the soul of the Roman 
Church. In Romanism, and in some branches of 
Anglicanism, the church claims a monopoly of sal- 
vation, and divine grace can flow only through the 
priest, the sacraments, and other appointed channels. 
In true Protestantism, every penitent can cry out to 
God directly, as did the publican, saying, " God be 
merciful to me a sinner," irrespective of any church, 
and irrespective of all priests. Every soul having 
so cried out to God, may have the answer, " Thy 
sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee; go in 
peace." I repudiate such churchism as would give 
any church and any priests a monopoly of salvation. 
Away with such churchism ! To claim such a mon- 
opoly of salvation is to be guilty of sacrilege. Come 
immediately to Christ. He alone has the words of 
eternal life. 

Men and women, whither shall you go? You 
must go somewhere. The soul needs help and hope 
and life. Mysteries surround us ; dangers are near. 



THE INTERROGATIVE CONFESSION 203 

Whence came we ? Whither go we ? What are we ? 
We want a man to sympathize with us, the Man, 
Christ Jesus. We want a God to succor us, the 
God-Man, Christ Jesus. We want one near enough 
to love us, and to let us love him. We want one far 
enough above us to help us, and to command our 
reverence and adoration. Oliver Wendell Holmes 
said truthfully: 

Our midnight is thy smile withdrawn; 
Our noontide is thy gracious dawn; 
Our rainbow arch, thy mercy's sign; 
All, save the clouds of sin, are thine. 

Go now to Jesus Christ, that you may receive 
life eternal from him, its only and its divine source; 
to whom be glory now and evermore ! 



XV 
THE DESPICABLE POSSIBILITY 
Text : Or despise ye the church of God? — i Cor. 2 : 22. 

THIS text is connected with the account given 
by the Apostle Paul of the institution of the 
Lord's Supper, he having received his instructions 
by special revelation from the ascended Lord. The 
remarks, which limited time will permit to be made, 
will be along the line of the special needs and pros- 
pects of the church. In the church at Corinth, there 
had been introduced a service which was known as a 
love-feast; these love-feasts were the agapae of the 
early church. Such services are still continued in 
some branches of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
in our own country. This was a common meal of 
which the people, rich and poor, high and low, par- 
took previous to the reception of the Lord's Supper. 
They brought their own provisions with them. It 
was expected that the supply thus brought would be 
divided, so that the rich would not have an abun- 
dance, and so that the poor should not lack. The idea 
of such a feast was very beautiful: it might have 
been helpful to a remarkable degree. But it was 
a feast which was liable to great abuse, and, as a 
matter of fact, it was greatly abused. The rich 
204 



THE DESPICABLE POSSIBILITY 205 

brought with them an abundance, and the poor had 
but little. The spirit of pride and of caste was 
speedily manifested. The rich ate by themselves ; 
the poor were neglected. Many not only ate by 
themselves, but they indulged in wine to such an 
extent as to become drunken. The soul of the 
Apostle Paul was stirred to its depths; as a result, 
he writes in this letter with great warmth. You 
can see that as he writes his eye flashes and his 
cheek flushes ; he asks, " What ! Have ye not houses, 
in which to eat your common meal? Why will ye 
despise and dishonor the church? Why will ye 
despise so sacred a feast as that of the Lord's Sup- 
per ? " In this feast they failed to discern the Lord's 
body; they profaned the Lord's Supper; and thus 
came the rebuke, and the rebuke was immediately 
followed by the instructions which the Apostle Paul 
so wisely gave. It is almost incredible that such 
scenes could have occurred in an apostolic church. 
On this occasion, a somewhat larger application is 
given to the apostle's words than perhaps he de- 
signed. It is possible for men and women to-day to 
despise the church of God. There are certain classes 
to whom this rebuke of the apostle must come. 

The Service of God's House. 

First, all those who fail to attend the service of 
God's house, in some degree despise the church of 
God. One is astonished to find whole families, not 
one of whose members ever attends a religious serv- 



206 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

ice, except perhaps at a wedding or at a funeral. 
This remark applies to families, not only in the city, 
but in our country villages, and also in the farming 
communities. These men and women rob them- 
selves of high and holy privileges. They are bring- 
ing up their families in an atmosphere devoid of the 
sacred experiences which come from listening to 
God's voice in his word, and from speaking to God 
in our prayers and praises. You ought to use your 
influence with men in business, and men and women 
in social life, who never attend God's house, to in- 
duce them to attend. You will be bringing blessing 
to them, and honor to God, and benediction to the 
church of God, if you can induce individual men 
and women, and especially whole families, to be 
attendants on the services in God's house. 

Joining the Church. 

Secondly, those who do not join the church of 
God also despise the church. In all congregations 
there are large numbers of noble men and beautiful 
women who are outside the church. They are 
brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law to the church; 
they ought to be brothers and sisters indeed in the 
church. The nobility of their character is not because 
they are outside the church, but in spite of being out- 
side the church. They have, fortunately for them- 
selves, lived within the circle of church life. They 
have breathed its atmosphere; they have, to some 
degree, caught its spirit ; but they ought to be inside 



THE DESPICABLE POSSIBILITY 20J 

the church. They have their criticisms to make of 
church-members. If they themselves have higher 
standards of Christian living, let them come into the 
church and illustrate those higher standards by their 
own Christian consistency and attainment. I reach 
out my hand to such this morning. Come with us, 
and with God's help, we will do you good. Cast in 
your life with the people of God. Be wholly on the 
side of Christ. If you are Christ's, march under 
the flag. If you are followers of the Lord, put on 
the Lord's uniform. Do not claim loyalty when you 
refuse to march with the Lord's army. If you have 
a right to stay out of the church, so have I ; and if I 
have, so has the other man; and if he has, so has 
every man. Your action, if consistently followed, 
would blot out the church ; there would be no church 
of God upon the earth, if all men did as you do. Is 
that the right position for you to take ? What would 
this world become without the church of God ? Do 
not, I beseech you, despise the church of God. 

Not Contributing Means. 

Thirdly, those who do not contribute of their 
means to the church of God are among the despisers 
of the church. One must speak the truth touching 
all these great obligations. It has recently been af- 
firmed, in a responsible monthly review, that the 
salaries of Congregational ministers have suffered a 
decrease of ten per centum during the last decade. 
What is true of the clergy of this denomination is 



208 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

probably true of the clergy of all the denominations. 
During this same period, the United States has 
enjoyed the greatest prosperity in the history of the 
country. During this same period, the income of 
trades and professions has not experienced any de- 
crease; indeed, it has enjoyed an increase. During 
this same period, the cost of living has gone up 
greatly, and large numbers of clergymen are greatly 
embarrassed, although they do not desire to state 
the facts, by the smallness of their salaries. During 
this same period, the number of men studying for 
the Christian ministry has fallen off very consider- 
ably. High-minded young men, capable of making 
a great success in business and in law, are unwilling 
to enter the ministry to receive salaries on which 
they cannot respectably live. A steady decrease in 
salary, and a steady increase in cost of living, will 
inevitably prevent men from entering the Christian 
ministry. It will also lower the tone and depreciate 
the quality of the men who do enter the Christian 
ministry. There are clergymen who, without the 
slightest doubt, would have an income from fifty to 
one hundred thousand dollars a year in the legal pro- 
fession, who have an income of twenty-five hun- 
dred or three thousand dollars in the Christian min- 
istry. These men are sensitive, many of them are 
extremely sensitive; they are sore to the bottom of 
their hearts, because of the sacrifices which they and 
their families have to make, owing to the smallness 
of their salaries. 



the despicable possibility 20o. 

Paying a Debt. 

Somehow, a few churchmen have learned to feel 
that giving to the church, and the cause of God gen- 
erally, is payment of a debt. This is a curious fact 
in Christian life. We have thought of giving to the 
church as a gratuity, as an act of benevolence, as a 
manifestation of philanthropy, and not as the pay- 
ment of a debt. When a physician's bill comes in, 
a lawyer's bill, a grocer's bill, we recognize the pay- 
ment as the payment of a debt. But we have failed 
almost entirely to recognize our obligations to the 
church and to the kingdom of God as the payment 
of a debt. When a man rents a pew or takes a sit- 
ting, he feels, somehow, as if he were bestowing a 
charity, instead of paying a debt which he owes to 
the church and to God ; and if it is necessary to 
economize, he will economize nowhere else, until he 
has economized on his payments for the support of 
the church. He will pay every other debt first, and 
then, at last and grudgingly, he will throw in his 
gratuity, as he deems it, to the church. These state- 
ments unfortunately are true ; these errors ought to 
be rebuked; these wrongs ought to be corrected. 
Has not the time come when the emphasis that in- 
sists that a clergyman shall live a self-sacrificing life 
should be transferred, in its due proportion, to the 
laity as well? When a man spends ten to twenty- 
five thousand dollars on his family luxuries; and 
gives fifty or a hundred and fifty dollars for a pew, 
o 



210 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

is that a fair division ? Is that an honest apportion- 
ment of his resources and expenditures? Are we 
not debtors to God as truly as we are debtors to 
men? Has not the time come when we ought to 
recognize that money given to the church of God is 
the payment of a debt which we owe to God and to 
the church ? Why should the claims of God be the 
last we pay? Ought not pastors to urge these obli- 
gations on their people? Are we to limit the min- 
istry to the sons of rich men, and so have ministers 
who can support themselves without salaries? It 
may be necessary to do so, if the reduction in sala- 
ries, which is now made in many churches, shall 
continue. Are ministers to be always called upon to 
make, far and away, the largest sacrifices in the 
support of the church? Are they to continue to be 
the largest givers at almost every offering that is 
made ? Pastors known to me lead in every offering 
made in their churches for outside benevolence ; 
they are also the largest pew-holders in the church. 
They should do their share, but must they do also 
the share of three or four others, any one of whom 
is abler than they? 

Religious Work Costs Money. 

It seems to be the plan of God that religious work 
must cost money. It is part of the purpose of God 
that character should be developed by giving money, 
and often by giving it at considerable sacrifice. Cost 
and worth are evermore close neighbors; work is 



THE DESPICABLE POSSIBILITY 211 

always the standard of value; labor determines 
worth. An ounce of gold is worth more than an 
ounce of lead, for no other reason in the world but 
that it costs more labor to secure an ounce of gold 
than an ounce of lead. If an ounce of gold could 
be secured for the same labor as an ounce of lead, 
it would be of no more value than an ounce of lead. 
Pebbles are valueless because it requires little labor 
to secure pebbles; diamonds are of extreme value 
because of the enormous amount of labor required to 
obtain diamonds. These great economic laws hold 
in all religious things. Cost and worth always go 
side by side. The site of a church costs so much 
per square foot. This Calvary Church property is 
worth one million, perhaps a million and a quarter, 
of dollars at this moment. The land on which this 
church and chapel stand, cost one hundred and sixty 
thousand dollars, a thousand dollars per linear foot, 
as nearly as it was possible to figure the cost at the 
time of the purchase. Buildings increase in cost as 
civilization progresses. Heating, lighting, repairs, 
insurance, these are all costly. Running expenses 
are as costly for churches as for halls and theaters 
of the same size and character. Who expects to 
have a sitting in a theater without paying for it? 
And yet it costs no more, or very little more, to con- 
duct a theater than to conduct a church. Churches 
are never conducted for money; theaters are; and 
the patrons of the theater pay the money. You will 
pay in a single night in attendance at a theater, and 



212 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

for the inevitable concomitants of that attendance, 
as much as you will give for a church sitting for a 
year ; and yet, now and then, a man complains of the 
cost of a sitting in a church. 

Running expenses, I say, as a rule, are as costly 
for churches as for halls and theaters. Coal bills 
are not very religious things; indeed, they are im- 
mensely secular, but they have to be paid with 
money. Trustees of churches give their time, their 
labor, and their thought, and give also largely of 
their money, as a service of love. We owe them an 
enormous debt. The deacons and trustees of this 
church stand around the minister as a body-guard, 
as fellow-workers, as beloved laborers together in 
the Lord. I have never had a serious criticism, in 
thirty-six years and a half, to make of a deacon or 
a trustee. They have, as a rule, been most loyal and 
most loving, and I am here to-day to bear my testi- 
mony to their fraternal affection and to their relig- 
ious devotion. It must be remembered, in this con- 
nection, that coal bills are not remitted because the 
coal was bought for a church. In fact, men who sell 
coal expect the bills to be the more promptly paid, 
because they are contracted for a church. Who is 
to pay these bills ? Officers of churches cannot pay 
them as if they were personal bills; the responsi- 
bility belongs to all those associated with a church. 
If a church meets in halls or meets in theaters, it 
will find that they also are costly; even tents cost 
money. I say, it seems to be the purpose of God, 



THE DESPICABLE POSSIBILITY 213 

in the development of his kingdom in this world, to 
necessitate the expenditure of money in order that 
his cause should advance. He might have ordered 
it otherwise; he does not seem to have chosen to 
make it otherwise. When pastors have to make 
enormous sacrifices to make up deficits for various 
causes, missionary and other, they lose heart and 
hope. They have to try to increase their income in 
some other way than by their salaries ; they have to 
write newspaper articles ; they have to go out as lec- 
turers ; they have to strive in various other ways to 
meet their responsibilities. Their salaries, depleted, 
have to be supplemented by many kinds of secular, 
or at least semi-secular, work. This is inevitable; 
and as a result, there may be neglect of pulpit prep- 
aration and pastoral duty. I suppose the average 
salary of ministers in several of the denominations 
in the State of New York, is not more than four 
hundred dollars a year, and I venture to say that 
the largest givers, in proportion to their incomes, in 
all the churches are the pastors. There is scarcely 
a day laborer who does not earn more money in a 
year than the average pastor in the State of New 
York. No wonder that virile, high-spirited, met- 
tlesome young men hesitate about going into the 
Christian ministry. How can they support their 
families ? Fortunately, now and then there is a man 
who can live independently of his salary. I could 
name some pastors who have given sums nearer two 
hundred thousand than one hundred thousand dol- 



214 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

lars for the cause of God, during the period of their 
pastorate in New York. I have the exact figures. 
Some of these pastors have made enormous sacri- 
fices. 

Failure to Give Religious Influence. 

Lastly, allow me also to say that those who fail to 
give their religious influence to the church, to some 
degree, despise the church of God. If we live in- 
consistent lives, we dishonor the church. Some 
members of the choir this morning have on their 
robes indications of their rank, tokens of their faith- 
fulness. Professor Bowman said, when they put on 
the robe with this rank, " You will not dishonor your 
robe by failure to perform your duty." That robe 
and that rank will stimulate them to do their duty. 
Putting on the uniform of our country stimulates 
men to bravery. Always in the newspapers, when 
a policeman is found in any position that is dis- 
reputable, the paper adds, when the facts warrant 
the statement, " and with his uniform on." For a 
policeman to be guilty of a disreputable act without 
his uniform on is bad enough ; but to be guilty while 
wearing his uniform is disgraceful to the last degree. 
When you put on the profession of faith in Jesus 
Christ, when you wear the robe of Christian pro- 
fession, we have a right to demand that you will not 
dishonor the church, that you will not despise the 
Lord who has bought you with his own most pre- 
cious blood. We come here this morning to sit at 



THE DESPICABLE POSSIBILITY 215 

this communion table; we renew here our sacra- 
mental vows. We rise from these seats to go out 
into the world; we shall not be despisers of the 
church; we shall not dishonor our Lord. But we 
bow at his pierced feet, we look into his face, and we 
lift up our hands, and pledge loyalty to Jesus Christ, 
the King of the church and the Saviour of men. 



XVI 

THE DIVINE ST. GEORGE 

Text: I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech 
you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are 
called. — Eph. 4 : 1. 

ON behalf of all the officers of this church, and 
on behalf of the members of the church and 
congregation generally, I give a most cordial wel- 
come to our guests on this occasion, the loyal " Sons 
of St. George." It is pleasant to me, and I am 
sure that it is equally pleasing to you, to see these 
two flags, the American and the British, adorning 
the pulpit on this occasion. These two flags stand 
for much that is noblest in history, grandest in 
literature, sublimest in liberty, and divinest in relig- 
ion. Their true relation is one of union, harmony, 
and sympathy, wherever they float. We have just 
held in our city a memorable Peace Congress. If 
the two nations represented by these two flags, the 
two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon people, 
stand together, and say to all the nations of the 
world, " You shall not go to war without our con- 
sent," there would be no war on this planet until the 
dawn of the millennium. These two nations, stand- 
ing together, can rule the world, rule it for law and 
216 






THE DIVINE ST. GEORGE 2\J 

liberty, rule it for peace and prosperity, rule it for 
civilization and Christianity. 

Sons of Great Britain. 

Allow me to call attention to some of the elements 
of this vocation wherewith ye are called. In doing 
so, permit me to exhort you to walk worthy of the 
vocation wherewith ye are called, as sons of old 
England ; or, as it would be more natural for me to 
say, sons of Great Britain. Britain's power is felt 
around the globe. Britain is the queen of many 
lands, and still more fully the mistress of the seven 
seas. What is the secret of her power? That 
secret is her loyalty, on the whole, to the religion of 
the Bible, to the principles taught in the word of 
God. I have had occasion to say to many officers of 
the British army and navy, and to Britons in civil 
life in India, and in other parts of the Orient, when 
they have criticized missions and missionaries, 
" You are indebted for all that England and Scot- 
land are to missions and missionaries." I had oc- 
casion to say to Mr. Carnegie, some time ago: 
" Your forefathers and mine were heathen idolaters 
in Scotland. They burned human sacrifices on the 
hillsides and in the valleys of Scotland." Why is. 
Scotland, why is England, to-day what both are?] 
Because missionaries preached the glorious gospel 
of the blessed God in England, Scotland, and Ire- 
land. I had occasion to remind sons of Britain, 
whom I met in the Orient, that they ought not to be 



2l8 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

unjust to Japan, to China, to India, to Ceylon, and 
to other Oriental countries by refusing to give them 
the gospel, because the gospel made Britain the 
power she is in literature, in art, in science, in com- 
merce, and in all that goes to make a nation great 
and glorious. Every teaching of the Golden Rule 
demands that we give to heathen nations to-day the 
gospel which has made the Anglo-Saxon the master 
of the world. Walk worthy of your high calling 
as sons of Britain. No nation has ever been so wise 
in colonizing other countries as has Great Britain. 
She made her serious mistake in regard to the 
American colonies ; but she had then a man as king 
who was not really an Englishman, but a dim-vi- 
sioned, headstrong German. Our American fore- 
fathers thought they were fighting against England ; 
but they were not. They were simply fighting 
George III and Lord North, just as their ancestors 
fought Charles I and the Earl of Strafford. The 
Declaration of Independence goes back to the Bill 
of Rights, and both go back to Magna Charta ; thus 
1776 calls to 1688, and both to 12 15. The plant of 
liberty which brought forth glorious fruit in the 
American atmosphere was deeply imbedded in 
British soil. 

It ought also to be borne in mind that there was 
a man on American soil who was, to all intents and 
purposes, an Englishman, George Washington. His 
training was British, his ideals were British, his 
sympathies, at the first, were British. He belonged 



THE DIVINE ST. GEORGE 219 

to that class of Englishmen to which belonged Oliver 
Cromwell, John Pym, John Hampden, and other 
lovers of liberty. The American Revolution really 
was a revolution of Englishmen with modern ideas 
of liberty against Englishmen whose ideas of liberty 
and progress were those only a little in advance of 
the Middle Ages. One reason why there were 
Hessians in the British army, at the time of the 
Revolution, was because Britons were unwilling to 
fight against the American Colonists. 

American Citizens. 

I urge you also to walk worthy of your vocation 
as citizens of the United States. In giving your loy- 
alty to the Stars and Stripes, you did not propose to 
be disloyal to the Union Jack. Some of you seated 
before me were brave soldiers during the Civil 
War. You bear to-night honorable scars, because 
of your bravery and loyalty to the land of your 
adoption. Preserve that double loyalty. This is 
your home. This country is, in many important re- 
spects, the foremost branch to-day of the Anglo- 
Saxon race. Mr. Stead and others are doubtless 
quite right in their declaration that, in all likeli- 
hood, the American branch of the Anglo-Saxon 
race is to lead the entire Anglo-Saxon world, and 
perhaps to lead all other nations. You can be per- 
fectly loyal in all your memories and affections to 
the land of your birth, while you are equally loyal 
to the land of your adoption. 



220 the christic reign 

Fraternal Relations. 

I urge you also to walk worthy of your high call- 
ing in all your fraternal relations. As Sons of St. 
George you have a high calling. St. George is sup- 
posed to have been born in Lydda or Ramleh in Pal- 
estine, in the latter part of the third century. When 
in Palestine, I visited the supposed place of his 
birth. According to tradition, he suffered martyr- 
dom at Nicomedia, April 23, 303. This service, 
therefore, is held almost on the exact anniversary 
which is observed as that commemorating his death 
as a martyr. The prevailing opinion is that he was 
brought up in Cappadocia, and that he embraced the 
military profession, and was a brave and loyal sol- 
dier. It is supposed by many historical students and 
critics that he is referred to by the historian Euse- 
bius in his " Ecclesiastical History,'' when he speaks 
of " a man of no mean origin, but one highly es- 
teemed for his temporal dignities." It is affirmed, 
in this connection, that when Diocletian issued his 
edict against the Christians, and that edict was 
posted up in conspicuous places in Nicomedia, St. 
George tore it down and rent it in pieces, throwing 
the pieces defiantly in the air. The emperor was, 
at that time, in Nicomedia, and this act of one who 
held high office and bore the title of " Prince of 
Nicomedia," necessarily brought on him swift and 
cruel punishment. It is believed that he suffered 
martyrdom by being beheaded, April 2^, 303. His 



THE DIVINE ST. GEORGE 221 

martyr's death greatly added to his fame. On an 
ancient church at Ezra, in Syria, there is a Greek 
superscription dated 346, which mentions St. George 
as one of the heroic martyrs. Constantine the 
Great built a church over the tomb of St. George, 
between Lydda and Ramleh ; and Ramleh, which 
claimed to be his birthplace, was called Georgia, in 
his honor. Constantine converted a temple of Juno 
at Constantinople into a church of St. George; and 
it is affirmed that to this church his remains were 
finally brought. It is interesting also that about the 
same time the name St. George's Arm was given 
to the Hellespont, a name which, in some geogra- 
phies, it still bears. In Rome, in Naples, and in 
other historic cities, churches were erected which 
bore his name. During the Anglo-Saxon period, 
honors were given his name in England. In his 
honor, a monastery was founded at Thetford in 
England; and, in the reign of the Conqueror, a 
church of St. George was founded at Oxford. He 
was extremely popular with the English Crusaders, 
and during the reign of Edward III he was chosen 
as the tutelary saint of England, being made by the 
same sovereign, about 1350, also the patron of the 
Order of the Garter. That is a very interesting line 
of discussion, but I cannot take the time now to 
show the relation between St. George and that 
Order. Aragon, Portugal, and Genoa also chose 
him as their patron. As early as 1222, a council was 
held at Oxford, which ordained that St. George's 



222 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

Day should be a national holiday. The red cross of 
St. George on a white ground was long worn as 
a badge by the soldiers of England, and it is now 
displayed on the Union Jack. 

In 1470, Frederick of Austria instituted an Or- 
der of Knighthood in honor of St. George. It is 
most interesting and, at first blush, somewhat sur- 
prising, that St. George is also the patron saint 
of Russia. All who have visited St. George's 
Hall in Moscow will recall its beauty; it is, without 
doubt, one of the most magnificent halls in the 
world. I wandered through that hall silent with 
amazement; my supply of adjectives expressive of 
wonder was soon exhausted in the attempt to de- 
scribe the beauty of that hall. Until the marriage 
of Ivan III with Sophia, the Greek princess, St. 
George slaying the dragon was a prominent feature 
of the arms of the grand dukes of Russia. You 
recall that, after that marriage, the striking charac- 
teristic in the arms of Russia v/as the double- 
headed eagle, the Byzantine emblem of the East and 
of the West, indicating that Russia was to rule both 
East and West, was to rule the world; this double 
eagle thus symbolized Russia's hope of universal 
dominion. 

But still St. George had a firm hold in Russia, 
and, in 1769, Catherine II founded the Russian 
Order of St. George. In addition to the honor 
paid him by the Roman, the Greek, and the Angli- 
can Churches, St. George is held in great rever- 



THE DIVINE ST. GEORGE 223 

ence, especially in Georgia, by the Mohammedans. 
Georgia, having been named in his honor, the Mo- 
hammedans joined with the Christians in giving him 
honor as a hero and a saint. He is known by them 
under the names of Ghergis and El-Khonder. 

The legend which represents him as slaying the 
dragon is comparatively modern. There is, in such 
a legend as this, a great mingling of historical and 
mythical elements. The story of St. George and 
the dragon occurs, for the first time, in a fully 
developed form, in the Historia Longobardica, or 
Golden Legend, Legenda Aurea, a celebrated collec- 
tion of hagiology, which was long immensely popu- 
lar, passing through one hundred editions, and be- 
ing translated into most of the languages of Europe, 
by Jacobus de Voragine, who in 1292 became Arch- 
bishop of Genoa, and who played an important part 
in the great events of his time. I am not able to 
trace that story to a later period than 1280. You 
are all, of course, familiar with the representation 
of St. George mounted on his horse, wearing full 
armor, and trampling and piercing the dragon writh- 
ing at his feet. In overcoming the dragon, he res- 
cued from death a maiden, the daughter of a king. 
The legend affirms that the dragon was sent by a 
magician named Athanasius, to devour the beautiful 
princess named Alexandria. This legend arose from 
the fact that St. George was perhaps confounded 
with Prince George of Cappadocia, a fuller, who 
in 356 a. d. was made bishop of Alexandria by 



224 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

the Arians, and who, in 361, was killed by the 
pagans whom he greatly oppressed. But the high- 
est authorities affirm that St. George is not identical 
with this Cappadocian George. 

Lessons. 

Now, granting that there is no small amount of 
legend and myth mingled with historic fact in the 
history of St. George, we shall still find that im- 
portant lessons are taught us by his life. You cer- 
tainly learn the lesson that you are to be brave and 
heroic, defending the weak and innocent against 
wrong, cruelty, and injustice of every sort. There is 
need of St. Georges to-day, as truly as at any time 
in the past. Modern life abounds with men and 
women suffering injustice, with men and women 
exposed to special trouble and danger. Their need 
appeals to you, in all that is noblest and manliest, 
in all that is most knightly and heroic in your fra- 
ternal organization. You are to leap to the rescue 
of the needy with spear of truth, heart of love, 
and tongue of flame; you are to denounce wrong 
and to defend right with strong hand and brave 
heart, wherever right and wrong are found. 

Be loyal to Jesus Christ. He is the true St. 
George. He went out to do fierce battle against 
the old serpent, the dragon. He met him in fierce 
conflict ; he trampled him under his feet ; he nailed 
him to the cross; he destroyed the enemy of man 
and the enemy of God. He met this old dragon 



THE DIVINE ST. GEORGE 225 

in his temptation in the wilderness. The conflict 
was fierce, but this divine St. George won a glori- 
ous victory. He said, " Get thee behind me, Satan." 
Satan never suffered such a defeat; he never re- 
covered from that defeat. His arm has been com- 
paratively powerless since that moment. Christ 
struck the crown from his brow and the scepter 
from his hand. The years pass. Our Lord is enter- 
ing the garden of Gethsemane. It is the hour of 
darkness. Satan had left him for a season; he 
now returned to the fierce conflict. Once more the 
true St. George was victorious, and he came forth 
in triumph from the fierce conflict. He now ap- 
proaches Calvary with his heavy cross upon his 
shoulder, and on that cross the next fierce conflict 
was waged. The dragon stung him! But the 
dragon left his sting in the wood of the cross; and 
he has been comparatively stingless ever since. 
When this divine St. George came down from the 
cross, and when he came up out of the grave, he 
led captivity captive; and Satan, death, and hell 
were trampled under foot, while he strode forth in 
triumph, victor over death and the grave. As loyal 
Sons of St. George, be loyal sons of God, his God, 
our God, and our portion f orevermore ! 



XVII 

THE COMPLETE REDEMPTION 

Text: And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom 
ye were sealed unto the day of redemption. — Eph. 4 : 30. 

THE Bible is an intensely practical book; it 
unites principles and precepts, doctrines and 
duties, in symmetrical and harmonious proportions. 
It relates promises and commands in inseparable 
unity. The fulfilment of the promise on the part 
of God, is often dependent on the performance of 
the command on the part of men. When we render 
obedience, God grants the fulfilment of his promise. 
In the three earlier chapters of the Epistle to the 
Ephesians, we have a discussion of important doc- 
trines; beginning with the fourth chapter, we have 
a series of earnest exhortations. The three earlier 
chapters inform the mind regarding the great doc- 
trines of the Epistle; the latter chapters are prac- 
tical applications of the doctrines taught by the ear- 
lier chapters. Thus precept and practice should 
ever stand in closest relations. The only way really 
to understand principles is by the performance of 
duties. Only those who do God's will, can really 
know God's doctrine. Disobedience to God's will 
blinds the eyes of the mind and the heart to God's 
226 



THE COMPLETE REDEMPTION 227 

doctrine. We have here a universal law, applicable 
in every relation in life. 

In the first sixteen verses of the chapter from 
which the text is taken, the apostle has given us 
exhortations to mutual love and unity; in the re- 
maining verses, we have incitations to purity of 
heart and holiness of life. Ephesian Christians are 
not to live as heathen Gentiles live. They are to 
live among them, but they are not to live like them. 
The heathen Gentiles were alienated from the love 
of God ; they were estranged from the blessedness 
of pure hearts and holy lives. Their consciences 
were seared; some of them were even past feeling. 
Not so were these Christian Gentiles. Not thus 
had they learned Christ ; they had learned to put off 
the old man, and to put on the new man thus created 
in Christ Jesus. They are, therefore, to put away 
lying. Lying was probably the most common sin 
among the heathen ; it is, perhaps, the most common 
sin among the heathen to this very day. They are 
also to put away anger and all ungoverned passion ; 
they are to speak the truth, every man with his 
neighbor. Their language is to be simple, sweet, 
pure, true. Our speech also is to be edifying; all 
bitterness, wrath, and anger are to be set aside. 
We are to be characterized by kindness, tenderness 
of heart, and forgiveness toward one another. What 
a world this would be, if we could live according 
to the twelfth chapter of Romans, or the fourth 
chapter of Ephesians ! What an exalted standard 



228 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

is placed before us in this chapter which we are 
considering this morning! We fall far short of 
this lofty standard. We must not, however, lower 
the standard. We must strive to bring our lives 
up to the high standard, rather than to lower the 
standard. 

A Sad Possibility. 

Coming now to the text itself, we discover that it 
teaches us, in the first place, a sad possibility — we 
may grieve the Holy Spirit of God. The fact that 
the Spirit of God may be grieved, clearly suggests 
the personality of the Spirit of God. I know that 
the apostle is speaking here of the third person of 
the Trinity after the manner of men; nevertheless, 
there is a great truth lying back of the human form 
of speech which the apostle has chosen to adopt. 
Evermore in Scripture the Holy Spirit is spoken of 
as a person ; he is referred to by the use of the mas- 
culine pronoun ; he is called the Paraclete, the Com- 
forter, a term that would be inappropriate if applied 
to an influence. Jesus said that he was about to 
leave the disciples, but he would send them another 
Paraclete, one to stand beside them and plead their 
cause. This Greek word corresponds to the Latin 
word, advocate, ad-vocare, one called to the side of 
another. In the Greek courts, when a man was on 
trial, he called to his side a man of influence, of 
reputation, of noble character; and he stood beside 
the accused, throwing over him the mantle of his 



THE COMPLETE REDEMPTION 229 

protection, and around him the circle of his influ- 
ence. Christ said, when he was with the disciples, 
that the Spirit should abide with them forever, when 
he should come. All the qualities and acts that are 
attributable to a person, are attributed to the Holy 
Spirit. Indeed, it is almost, if not quite, impossible 
to understand how a mere influence can be grieved. 
All the references to the Spirit suggest the tender- 
ness of his relationship with men. He is repre- 
sented as a dove, and as a flame. We may quench 
the flame. It is difficult to explain satisfactorily the 
doctrine of the Holy Spirit; but we can readily see 
that, in its practical effects, that doctrine is the inter- 
working of the Spirit of God with the soul of man. 
There is not any philosophy by which we can fully 
discover and adequately explain that interfusion, 
that inter sphering, of the human soul with the soul 
of God; but we may tenaciously hold truths with 
whose laws we are not yet fully acquainted. 

No man can explain how the sound of my voice 
is producing thoughts in your mind at this moment, 
thoughts corresponding to the words that I utter. 
Part of the process is physical. The voice smites 
the atmosphere; thus a sound wave is generated; 
this wave impinges on your auditory nerves. But 
how is the connection secured between your ear and 
your mind? This process is not physical. A new 
element is introduced. We cannot explain it; we 
can believe it; we must believe it. The soul is a 
complex instrument of marvelous scope and myste- 



230 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

rious power. Who can tell how a mother's eyes 
change the thoughts in her babe's soul? Who can 
translate a mother's glance of love into a daughter's 
heart or into a son's spirit? No more can we tell 
how the Spirit of God stirs the blood. We lift the 
thought of mother and babe up to God, who is both 
Father and Mother to those who trust him, and we 
find in the relations of parent to child a hint, at 
least, of the relations between a new-born soul and 
God. In our deepest souls we believe that the union 
between man and God is not a shadow, is not a 
figure, is not a dream; but that it is a literal fact. 
It is just as literal a fact as is any law in nature. It 
is just as real as the influence of the sun this morn- 
ing on the earth. The sun is gilding the world at 
this moment with his supernal splendor; he is irra- 
diating it with his matchless glory. God is a sun, 
and he lets his light and his love fall on human souls, 
as truly as the natural sun shines on the physical 
universe. God broods over the soul, as a mother 
over her babe. God's love comes into our life, and 
we may become a part of God. Every true be- 
liever is a partaker of the divine nature. The 
Spirit dwells in us; and our hearts become temples 
of the Holy Ghost. As truly as the temple of old 
was the palace of God, so a human soul may be 
God's dwelling-place. 

The influence of the Spirit helps us to interpret 
the word of God. There are many things that 
Christ had to say, which the disciples were not 



THE COMPLETE REDEMPTION 27,1 

capable of receiving. The Spirit came to call to their 
remembrance all things that Christ had said unto 
them. The Bible is a compass; but a compass is 
useless at sea, except the light shines on it. The 
Bible is a sail to bear our ships onward over the sea 
of life; but the sail is useless except the wind fill 
it; and the Spirit of God is the wind that must fill 
the sail, and thus bear the ships onward. The Bible 
is a lamp to our feet, but it cannot be a lamp to our 
feet and a light to our path, except it have oil ; and 
the Spirit of God, in some mysterious way, is the oil 
in the lamp of God's word. 

Now this Spirit may be grieved ; of that sad truth 
there is not the slightest doubt. The sins which 
grieve him are specified in the context ; our words, 
our acts, our thoughts may grieve the Spirit of God. 
If you notice, the apostle becomes more specific at 
this point. He tells us that lewdness, filthiness, 
lying, corrupt communication, bitterness, wrath, 
malice, anger — these grieve the Spirit of God. His 
grief and departure from us are in harmony with 
natural laws. No man can be a painter or a musi- 
cian, except his spirit be in sympathy with these 
noble arts. The spirit of music will desert him, if 
his soul live in an atmosphere of discord. No man 
can be a student of esthetics, except his life be 
keyed to the law of estheticism; no man can have 
the Spirit of God dwelling in him, if his life is out 
of harmony with the laws of purity and love of that 
blessed Spirit. 



■BBH^— H— wmmmammm ^ 



2$2 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

The consequences of the departure of the Spirit 
from us are unspeakably sad. The heart from 
which the Spirit of God has gone, is a world with- 
out the sun ; it is a world without the song of a bird, 
or the fragrance of a flower; it is a world without 
a morning; it is nothing but dampness, darkness, 
and death. There is not the slightest doubt but that 
every one of us has, at some time, grieved the Spirit 
of God. There is not the slightest doubt but that 
every one of us has made an approach to the com- 
mittal of the unpardonable sin. What is the un- 
pardonable sin ? Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. 
Cannot the blood of Christ wash away all sin? 
Yes, if men will seek forgiveness ; but the sin against 
the Holy Ghost is part of the process of neglect of 
seeking forgiveness. We are all on the line of the 
commission of the unpardonable sin. Let us not 
go too far. Let us retrace our steps. Let us say: 

Return, O holy Dove, return, 

Sweet messenger of rest; 
I hate the sins that made thee mourn 

And drove thee from my breast. 

The dearest idol I have known, 

Whate'er that idol be, 
Help me to tear it from thy throne 

And worship only thee. 

A Blessed Experience. 

Now you will notice, in the second place, that 
there is a blessed experience mentioned in this text 



THE COMPLETE REDEMPTION 233 

— believers are sealed by the Holy Spirit. What is 
really meant by that part of my text? I admit that 
it is not easy to give a satisfactory answer to that 
question. I can illustrate the meaning, however. 
You know that it was customary among all the 
nations, when purchases of goods of any kind were 
made, to mark these goods with the seal of the pur- 
chaser, that he might recognize his own goods, as 
distinguished from the goods of others. He was 
thus able to claim his own purchase, although it 
might be mingled with the goods of others. To- 
day on the prairies, when men catch horses, they 
put special marks, or seals, on these horses. It was 
common also, in the ancient time, to put a seal on 
what was dedicated to God, on what was offered to 
God in sacrifices. Thus cattle for sacrifice were 
marked, sealed, set apart, consecrated to that serv- 
ice. Cattle so designated came with a ribbon, or 
some other sign, on their horns — a ribbon indicating 
that they were dedicated to Jove, or to some other 
heathen deity. The same thought runs through 
the Scripture. The seal signified the setting apart 
to a special purpose of the object on which it had 
been placed. 

How many of us have stopped to ask what is 
the meaning of the phrase, " the pope's bull " ? We 
use words thoughtlessly. What is the meaning of 
" bull " in that connection ? Have you ever stopped 
to ask? It comes from the word bulla, a stamp, a 
leaden seal ; the name finally came to be given to the 



234 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

document itself. Our words bullet and bullion come 
from the same word. Originally, it was the seal ap- 
pended to the edicts or rescripts of the pope. If 
the seal was on an edict of justice, the seal was ap- 
pended to it by a hempen cord. If it was on an edict 
of grace, it was attached by a silken thread. Up to 
the sixteenth century, the bulla was impressed on 
one side with the heads of Peter and Paul. But in 
later years, on the one side were the arms of the 
pope, and on the other side the name of the pope is 
placed. 

Have we stopped to ask why we, to this day, use 
the words, " sign your name " ? There is an inter- 
esting bit of history suggested by that phrase. Why 
do we, when we push a document toward a man say, 
" Sign your name" ? Why do we not say, " Write 
your name " ? In the olden time, many men could 
not write ; they had, therefore, to make a sign. Here 
was a brave knight ; he could fight like a demon, but 
he could not write like a clerk; so he had his seal, 
perhaps on a finger ring, or on the hilt of his sword. 
He dipped the seal into the ink, and with his clumsy 
hand he put the seal on the paper. He could not 
write his name; but he could sign his name. We 
have retained the language to this day, although, 
strangely enough, we often forget its origin. 

The possession of the Spirit is our seal ; it is the 
earnest of the Spirit. When men made a purchase 
of a house, they paid down some money, and that 
was called earnest money; and the seller of the 



THE COMPLETE REDEMPTION 235 

house gave them a little twig from a tree that grew 
on the place, or a little clump of earth from the 
turf, or the key of the house to indicate that posses- 
sion was passed over, because of the payment of the 
earnest money. Now the possession of the Spirit of 
God, is the earnest God gives us that we shall re- 
ceive the fuller blessings that are certain to come. 
One day we shall have a territory from the soil of 
Canaan ; one day we shall have a tree from the para- 
dise of God; one day we shall have a key to our 
heavenly mansion. 

A Great Certainty. 

Now allow me in the last place, to mention a great 
certainty — the clay of complete redemption. Be- 
lievers one day shall have complete redemption. 
The body is to be redeemed from the power of the 
grave. Satan is not to triumph over this body. This 
body is fearfully and wonderfully made. It is one 
of the grandest pieces of mechanism the great God 
ever produced. All the mechanicians of the world 
cannot make a human body. The most skilful 
mechanic cannot make a man who can stand and 
walk. If we were to see the movements of our 
hearts, we would be afraid to speak, to rise, or to 
walk. We may stand in awe of the human body. 
Think of the marvel of the heart, beating, throbbing 
for sixty, seventy, eighty, a hundred years! The 
great God started it. The body is to have a com- 
plete redemption ; sickness will be gone, pain will be 



236 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

unknown. The body is to be glorious one day in 
the presence of God. Redemption contemplates an 
utter victory over sin and Satan. We have unduly 
limited our thought, in speaking of redemption. In 
my early years, men always spoke of saving the 
soul. Perhaps some of us so speak to this day. It 
is a very inadequate form of expression. We ought 
to speak of saving the man ; not the soul alone, but 
the man; saving his feet, saving his hands, saving 
his tongue, saving his brain, consecrating the whole 
man to God; this is a work worthy of the eternal 
Jehovah. God must have great joy in saving men 
and women! We may well envy God this un- 
speakable joy. 

Then comes the salvation of the mind. We are 
more like God than we perhaps know. When I 
think of the discoveries of the latter part of the 
nineteenth century and the opening of the twentieth 
century, I stand almost in awe of the brain and soul 
of man. Think of a brain like Shakespeare's, like 
Milton's, like Bacon's! Think of the brain of the 
great inventors to-day; the brain of men who are 
discovering telautographs, telephones, and wireless 
telegraphy ! Such discoveries are marvelous. Such 
men are like God. Yet they are very unlike God. 
A drop of water from the ocean is like the ocean; 
but a drop of water lying in the palm of my hand 
scarcely gives you a suggestion of the world-gird- 
ling sea ; yet it looks like the sea, it is a part of the 
sea. What marvels await us when the mind shall 



THE COMPLETE REDEMPTION 237 

be emancipated from all the environments and 
limitations of the flesh ! What mighty achievements 
will mark us ! Better be an animal than a man, if 
we are to die like dogs and be no more. We could 
not bear to die, if in dying we were blotted out ; but 
if death is only a birth, if death is a translation into 
a larger and nobler life, where the clock of our brain 
shall go on for untold millenniums, then we are ready 
to die, ready to be born again, ready to close our 
eyes here and open them in God's immediate pres- 
ence. But if you are not a Christian, if you are an 
enemy to God, you will open sadly disillusioned eyes 
in his presence. How dare a man resist the Holy 
Ghost? How dare a man live a rebel against the 
Almighty, and look forward to the time of opening 
his eyes in God's presence only to shrink and shrivel 
into the wretched creature he must be forever ! God 
forbid that such an experience should be yours ! 

We rise to a still higher thought. The soul with 
all its powers shall be delivered from all the conse- 
quences of sin. What is Shakespeare doing this 
morning? What kind of an epic is Milton singing? 
What " Oratorio of the Messiah " is Handel com- 
posing this morning? What "In Memoriam " is 
Tennyson writing ? Glorious is it to be a Christian ! 
Blessed is it to serve God on earth, and then dwell 
with God forever in heaven ! Who would not be a 
Christian? The day of victory is dawning. The 
Eastern sky is radiant with its crimson and gold. 
Come speedily, O day of complete redemption! 



XVIII 

THE TRIPLE ENDOWMENT 

Text: For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but 
of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. — 2 Tim. 1 : 7. 

THESE are the words of Paul, the aged disciple, 
to Timothy, the youthful disciple. Paul was a 
veteran, laying aside his sword and helmet. Timo- 
thy was a raw recruit, buckling on his armor and 
preparing himself for the noble conflict. The 
friendship between these two men is one of the 
beautiful episodes in the history of the infant 
church. This friendship had a mellowing, sweeten- 
ing, and ennobling influence on the mind and heart 
of PauL It toned down his impassioned vigor, and 
inspired all his tender impulses. He was a lonely 
man ; he was homeless, wifeless, childless ; often he 
needed friendship, and the opportunity for mani- 
festing fraternal affection and paternal devotion. 
He found the opportunity for both in his relations 
to Timothy. Paul was a great statesman in his 
views of Christianity. He lifted Christianity from 
being merely a Jewish cult into a universal faith. 
He turned the tide of history ; he changed the char- 
acter of the Christian world. He was a Hebrew 
in blood, a Greek in culture, a Roman in citizenship, 
238 



THE TRIPLE ENDOWMENT 239 

and a Christian in faith. He was a consecrated 
cosmopolite. There never was in the Christian 
church a man with a more superb outfit than that 
of the Apostle Paul. The result was that he did 
more work than all the other apostles put together. 
Compared with him, there was no apostle worthy 
of mention. The only apostles who could be even 
mentioned in the same category are John and Peter. 
But he is so vastly superior to both as to leave them 
hopelessly behind. 

He is in Rome as he writes this Epistle. He is 
soon to be on trial for his life. He knows that the 
result of that trial will be death; indeed, he is fa- 
cing death as he writes the words of the text. Most 
of his earlier companions have forsaken him; they 
have forgotten him in his sorrow. He is left almost 
alone. Luke is with him. How his heart hungers 
for love ! But for the presence and power of God 
in his soul, it seems as if his heart would have 
broken with its continuous aching. There in his 
cell he sits, with his chained hand upon his knee, 
musing as to his future, and expressing his longing 
for the presence of Timothy. It is probable that 
he was arrested as being implicated in the charges 
made against the Christians for the fire that oc- 
curred in year 64. He is treated now no longer, 
as he had been treated before, with courtesy; but 
as a common criminal. Many of his Asiatic friends 
have avoided him; and so his heart turns with 
peculiar affection toward Timothy. In these cir- 



24O THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

cumstances, he writes this Second Epistle, earnestly 
begging Timothy to come to him before the winter. 
He writes from prison; he writes in expectation of 
a speedy execution. He thus sends fatherly in- 
structions to his beloved son in the faith. One's 
heart grows very tender as one thinks of this aged 
disciple, as the thought goes back over countries 
and over centuries to him yonder in his lonely cell, 
with death before him, writing these words to Timo- 
thy. But how triumphantly he does write ! Here is 
no miserere; here is no threnody ; here is a paean of 
victory. He rejoices in God, and has high hope and 
great faith for the future. He gives, in this 
connection, these practical suggestions to Timothy. 

The Spirit of Power. 

Your attention is now called to the first element 
of this outfit, the spirit of pozver. Power is put here 
in contrast with the spirit of timidity, just men- 
tioned. The Greek word that is here translated fear, 
as well as the Greek word that is translated power, 
is most suggestive. Timothy was a timorous man; 
he was such constitutionally; he was such also be- 
cause of his illness. He was a mother's boy; he 
was a grandmother's boy. He had been petted; he 
had been almost spoiled. Growing out of these 
conditions came this shrinking fearfulness which 
we often discover in his history. The Apostle Paul 
recognizes these facts; he desires to put Timothy 
on his mettle ; he gives him an exhortation that may 



THE TRIPLE ENDOWMENT 24I 

rouse him to greater courage, hope, and achieve- 
ment than otherwise would be possible. He warns 
him, therefore, against holding to the spirit of fear, 
and reminds him that one of the very first elements 
in a Christian's outfit for work is the spirit of power. 

Let us dwell upon this element for a few mo- 
ments. What kind of power? Power is a myste- 
rious word. What is power ? Who can tell ? Who 
can give an exhaustive definition of power? Turn 
to the Century Dictionary, and you will see that 
three columns are given to the word power. Power, 
in its origin, goes back to God. In Ps. 62 : 11, we 
read, " power belongeth unto God." " All power," 
said Christ, " is given unto me." We know power, 
not in its essential nature, but in its manifestations. 
In this particular case, we discover the kind of 
power. It was power to endure trial ; it was power 
of resistance against evil, and triumph over opposi- 
tion. We need power to-day for fighting the battle 
of life and for running the race of duty. 

We are all disposed at times to the spirit of fear- 
fulness. An east wind robs us of our hope of 
heaven; an attack of indigestion destroys our faith 
in God. We are, to no small degree, creatures of 
environment. But, if we have the spirit of love to 
God and love to men, we shall overcome the unfa- 
vorable environment. We may have sunshine in our 
souls, though there be shadow in our environment. 
We need power with God and power from God. 
We speak in God's name, and not by our own au- 
Q 



242 THE CHRlSTIC REIGN 

thority. The message we bear is God's. The re- 
sults we desire to secure are for God's glory. It is 
a great thing for a man to be so lifted out of him- 
self as that he is conscious he is doing God's work 
in God's way. When we rise to that conviction of 
our relation to God and to duty, we are protected 
from danger and we are enveloped as with a 
garment in the spirit of power. 

When we have power with God we shall have 
power with and for men. A consistent life is a 
resistless argument for the truth of our holy relig- 
ion. A man may violently oppose your words, but 
no man can be indifferent to the silent influence of 
a consistent Christian life. The best argument for 
Christianity is Christianity. A life devoted to God 
and to men is its own proof of the power of God 
through the truth of his word. Such a life is an un- 
answerable argument in favor of our Christian faith. 

Christian Love. 

The second element in this outfit is love. True 
love casts out fear. When we rightly fear God, we 
shall not unduly fear man. He who is conscious 
of the inspiration of God may valiantly defy the 
opposition of man. Love, consuming love, toward 
God, becomes an armor which cannot be pierced 
by the arrow of any enemy. Out of this love toward 
God comes love toward men; these two forms of 
love are inseparable. Love toward men is the 
stream which flows from the fountain of love 



THE TRIPLE ENDOWMENT 243 

toward God ; love to men is but the corollary to our 
love of God. We never can show that we love God, 
whom we have not seen, except we love our brother- 
man, whom we daily see. This love makes a man 
fearless amid all forms of danger. We well know 
the power of love of country, or the still greater 
influence of love to wife or to child. How vastly 
greater ought the influence to be of love to God! 
Great also will be our love to men who have been 
redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ ! 

We know the love the Japanese showed to their 
country during the war with Russia. You know 
how, during our Civil War, fathers stretched out 
their hands over the heads of their boys, saying, 
" God cover your heads, my sons, in the day of 
battle." Beautiful as is this sentiment, it is sur- 
passed in love of country by the language of Jap- 
anese parents. When their boys stood before them 
ready to go into the army, they said, " Go, sons, win 
your crown." By that language they meant, " Go 
and die for your country, and win immortal honor." 
No wonder that the Japanese army startled the 
world. Probably there never was in any country in 
human history an army so inspired by k)ve of coun- 
try as was that Japanese army. They knew that 
Russia meant to wipe their country off the map. 
A Christian Japanese officer said to me : " We ought 
to thank God that we won so quickly; for every 
man, woman, and child in Japan would have died 
rather than be defeated by Russia." 



244 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

But in the Christian conflict there is a love that 
ought to be higher, sweeter, and diviner than love 
for country : love to God and love to man for Jesus' 
sake. Such love is resistless. You can win more 
converts by love than by logic; indeed, love has a 
logic of its own. You can love a man into the king- 
dom of God, when you cannot force him into it by 
any form of argument. Men are seldom saved by 
argument. But, thank God, love is resistless! A 
man who sincerely loves us can get almost anything 
from us; it is a joy to serve him. We can readily 
understand how Jacob served seven years for 
Rachel, and the seven years seemed but a few days, 
because of the love he bore her. Love has a dialect 
of its own ; love has a music born in heaven. Throw 
around men the threefold cord of love, and they 
cannot resist your influence, nor God's power 
through you. Argue with them, and they will fight 
you; they will stand up and match you, foot to 
foot, and fist to fist. But love them, and their hearts 
will break. This is the divinest part of the Chris- 
tian's endowment. Where there is love of God, 
there will be love of man; and there will also be 
love of truth as a revelation of God, and as a 
message to men. 

A Sound Mind. 

Notice the last element of this endowment. It is, 
in the King James version, described as a sound 
mind. The Greek word here employed is never else- 



THE TRIPLE ENDOWMENT 245 

where found in the New Testament, in the form in 
which it here appears. Parts of it are found, but 
in the particular form which here it assumes it is 
nowhere else found. It is a very suggestive and 
beautiful word. It describes a man of prudence, of 
discretion, of good judgment. It sets before us a 
man with a well-balanced mind, a man who sees 
things in their true proportions, and in their right 
relations. You can judge as to a man's practical 
wisdom by his sense of proportion, and by the 
nature of his choices. That man is not a man of 
sound mind who thinks more of earth than he does 
of heaven, more of time than he does of eternity, 
more of himself than he does of God. Strictly 
speaking, that man is a fool; he has not a sound 
mind; he has a cracked brain; he has an empty 
head; he has a silly soul. The love of God gives 
men practical sense. The love of God in the heart 
puts brains into the head. True religion makes 
men symmetrical, well-proportioned, properly bal- 
anced. The man who prefers baubles to diamonds, 
who prefers pebbles to pearls, is destitute of reason. 
You rightly say, " The man is insane, he has no 
brains, he is an idiot." Are you not perfectly justi- 
fied in applying that method of reasoning to the 
higher things of life? Every man in the world is 
thus known, to a great degree, by the choices he 
makes. The man who chooses bits of glass instead 
of gold is commercially insane; and the man who 
chooses the devil instead of Jesus is morally insane. 



246 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

Some of you are noble men and truly beautiful 
women, and yet you are without God and without 
hope! How much nobler you would be as men, 
how much more beautiful as women, if you were 
Christians ! Why are you not Christians ? Why do 
you turn away from Jesus Christ? Why must you 
go out from this Communion service ? Why do you 
turn your back upon the Lord's table, which repre- 
sents the body of Christ broken and the blood of 
Christ shed for human sin? Why are you so lack- 
ing in brain, and so shallow in heart, when you 
might be sound-minded and true-hearted? 

There is another interpretation to this word, 
which makes it mean correction, or discipline. This 
is the idea taught in the translation given in the Re- 
vised version. Then the idea would be that Paul 
was exhorting Timothy to exercise authority, disci- 
pline, correction, over those about him. But, as we 
look a little deeper into the word, we discover that 
there is really no contradiction between these two 
thoughts. For the man who is to exercise authority, 
discipline, correction, must be a man of sound 
judgment, of wise thought, and of wholesome 
purpose. 

Thus this last element in the enduement of a 
truly furnished Christian sets before us a soul har- 
monized in all its powers. A man who is not a 
Christian is only a partial man ; sometimes he is only 
a small percentage of a man, compared with what 
he might be, if he were truly a child of God. You 



THE TRIPLE ENDOWMENT 247 

may be successful in business, you may be literary, 
you may be artistic, you may be esthetic; but, if 
you are without Jesus Christ, you are only a partial 
man, you are only a partial woman. Without Christ 
you are only a segment; you ought to be a circle. 
You are only a spheroid ; you ought to be a sphere. 
The true man is circular; the true man is a circle. 
Truly Christian men and women are circles and not 
segments. 

I speak to you, young men. Why are you not 
Christians? Why do you not love Jesus Christ? 
In Christ is the loftiest ideal of manhood. One 
might rather be a dog or a horse, than be made in 
the form of a man, and live without God and with- 
out hope. Better be a good dog than a bad man; 
better be a noble horse than an ignoble man. God 
made you, young man, to look upward and not 
downward, forward and not backward. That is 
why you possess eyes that naturally look upward. 
Animals naturally look downward. You are false 
to your eyes, to your entire physical constitution, 
not to speak of your moral nature, when you look 
downward instead of upward. I speak thus, be- 
cause I would win you now to Jesus Christ. Will 
you come to the blessed Saviour? Will you be the 
noble man God meant you to be? Will you be the 
beautiful woman God meant you to be? Will you 
be made in God's image, more beautiful than angels, 
by being remade in the spirit of power, and love, 
and a sound mind? God grant it, for Jesus' sake. 



XIX 
THE KNOCKING CHRIST 

Text: Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any 
man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to 
him, and will sup with him, and he with me. — Rev. 3 : 20. 

RAPH/EL, in his masterpiece, " The Trans- 
figuration/' gave the world a striking com- 
mentary on the gospel narrative of our Lord's 
transfiguration on, as we suppose, Mount Hermon. 
William Holman Hunt, an English historical painter, 
has rendered a similar service for my text. With 
Rossetti and Millais, he founded the pre-Raphaelite 
Brotherhood, whose purpose was to restore to art 
the conscientious accuracy of the painters who pre- 
ceded Raphael. The disciples of this school care- 
fully studied nature both for accuracy and inspira- 
tion. Hunt was the leader of this school of art. 
He went to Palestine the better to study the figures 
and landscapes for his religious subjects, to which 
he gave his chief attention. He spent four years in 
Palestine in preparation for his picture, " Christ 
Discovered in the Temple." In 1854, he produced 
his two powerful pictures, " The Awakened Con- 
science " and "The Light of the World." This 
latter picture is a most suggestive commentary on 
248 



THE KNOCKING CHRIST 249 

the text of this discourse. It is altogether the best 
known of Hunt's works ; it is now in Keble College, 
Oxford ; as " Christ, the Carpenter," or " The 
Shadow of Death," is in Manchester ; and " Christ 
Discovered in the Temple " is in Birmingham. His 
" Light of the World " represents Christ wandering 
in the night, bearing a lantern in his hand, and 
wearing over his shoulders an embroidered robe. 
He is knocking on a door which evidently has long 
been closed, and which partly is covered with vines, 
while its hinges are rusty. The door has ho knob 
on the outside; this fact elicited criticism when the 
picture first appeared. But the artist showed his 
deep spiritual insight by omitting an external knob, 
and making the door open only from the inside. 
This masterpiece of this great artist beautifully illus- 
trates the text, " Behold, I stand at the door, and 
knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the 
door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, 
and he with me." 

It is very difficult for us to realize that we have 
in the New Testament a section which might be 
entitled " The Epistles of Christ." We seldom hear 
any one mention this fact. We are familiar with 
our Lord's parables, miracles, sermons, and prayers ; 
but the idea of a series of epistles from our Lord 
is quite surprising. We naturally think of the Epis- 
tles of Paul, of Peter, of James, of John, and of 
others ; but letters from Jesus ! The thought is posi- 
tively startling. The thought is still more startling 



25O THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

when we remember that these letters came from 
Jesus after his ascension. They were conceived and 
dictated before his throne, after his ascension, his 
enthronement, and his glorification. It is still more 
wonderful that these letters are marked by such 
tenderness of feeling, such considerateness of love. 
Often when men are highly promoted and greatly 
honored, they forget their early simplicity of heart, 
and tenderness of love. Christ was as tender, lov- 
ing, and gracious after his exalted enthronement, as 
when he sojourned on earth among his lowly disci- 
ples. The picture suggested by the text is from his 
last letter, that to the church at Laodicea. Laodicea 
was situated in Phrygia, about forty miles from 
Ephesus, and near Colosse. Curious remains of 
antiquity are still found beneath the soil. It is sad 
to remember that in the place which was Laodicea, 
the name of Christianity is largely forgotten, and 
the sounds that chiefly disturb the silence are the 
tones of the muezzin, proclaiming the ascendency 
of Mohammedanism. 

This church was neither cold nor hot ; it imagined 
itself to be rich, when it was poor, blind, and naked. 
Regarding this church, the Lord uses an intensely 
strong image. His language is implicative of deep 
disgust and utter loathing. Christ wished to restore 
the lost love. In order to secure this result, he stood 
at the heart's door, knocking for admittance. This 
is the picture which our blessed Lord has painted 
for us in this text. The vivid depiction of Christ, 



THE KNOCKING CHRIST 251 

standing at the door, is to bring home to the care- 
less, lukewarm church proofs of his unphanging 
love. In this letter we have the severest rebukes 
and the tenderest invitations. Where love is strong- 
est, reproof must be severest. To the worst church 
is made the greatest promise. Where the strongest 
incentive is needed it is given. 

Christ's Attitude. 

First, notice Christ's Attitude — " Behold, I stand 
at the door, and knock." This is a very remark- 
able attitude, so remarkable that it excites wonder- 
ment, as is implied in the word, " Behold " ! The 
church had greatly erred, but the opportunity of 
repentance was open. Christ was still willing to 
receive these Laodiceans back again into his favor. 
This is the most condescending attitude conceivable. 
In the Kensington Museum there is a picture of the 
great Doctor Johnson, sitting at the door of royalty, 
waiting in the anteroom, to take his turn of admit- 
tance. Here, the King stands at the door of human 
hearts and waits for admittance. This is truly a 
gracious attitude. But it is also a warning attitude. 
He stands at the door. Already he has stood long. 
He may walk away. In winter's cold and in sum- 
mer's heat, he has stood; by day and by night, he 
has stood. His locks are wet with the dews of the 
night. Having waited long, he is waiting still; but 
he may not wait much longer. I plead with you 
now to admit my patient and pleading Lord ! 



252 the christic reign 

Christ's Activity. 

Observe, in the second place, Christ's Activity — 
" Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." He is 
not idle as he waits through the heat of the day and 
the chill of the night. The utterance of rebukes is 
one of the methods of his knocking. His varied 
providences, in prosperity and in adversity, in joy 
and in sorrow, are methods by which he knocks. He 
comes in the stern demands of law ; he comes in the 
gentle wooings of love. The utterance of the re- 
bukes contained in this epistle, was the knocking of 
mercy. Listen to his invitation. He speaks, not 
only by his knock, but by his voice as well. The 
heart has many doors, and Christ knocks at each 
door. Over one door is written the word " Faith " ; 
Christ knocks on this door. Over another door is 
written the word " Fear " ; and Christ knocks on 
this door. Over another door stands the word 
" Love " ; Christ knocks on this door. Over another 
door is the word " Hope " ; and Christ knocks on 
this door. He will leave no door unvisited. He will 
earnestly strive to enter at any possible opening. 

A few years ago I went, during my summer holi- 
day, on foot through many parts of Scotland. I 
had occasion to call at a home while seeking for in- 
formation regarding facts of my family history. I 
knocked at the door, but received no answer. Then 
a neighbor called to me, saying, " They do not hear 
you; they are all ben the hoose." I caught the 






THE KNOCKING CHRIST 253 

thought instantly. Humble cottages are divided into 
two parts, the " but " and the " ben." When a house 
consists of only two apartments, the outer apart- 
ment is the " but," and the inner is the " ben." The 
word " but " is be-out, and the word " ben " is be-in. 
Burns says, " Wi' kindly welcome, Jenny brings him 
ben." 

I waited a few moments ; the neighbor ran around 
to the rear of the house, and a member of the family 
soon came, and I was admitted. You are, to-day, 
in the inner chamber of your souls, you are " ben " 
the house, perhaps, in selfish pleasure, or in selfish 
love ; and Christ is knocking " but " the house of 
the soul. Wonderfully touching is the Scottish ex- 
pression at this point. If you would take your 
neighbor into the inner apartment of the house, you 
would practically say, " I took him far ben the 
hoose " ; that is, " I took him into the very shrine 
of my home." Jesus waits to be admitted " ben 
the hoose " ; he longs to take up his abode in the 
inner part of the soul's temple. 

Very suggestive is the language here used in the 
text. It is remarkable that the dweller has the right 
to open the door, or to leave it closed. Man is the 
lord of his home; he is, within certain limitations, 
absolute lord of his soul. The text clearly teaches 
the freedom of the human will. If man were not 
free, he were not man. If there is no freedom, 
there can be no responsibility. We are free to re- 
ceive or to reject the heavenly Guest. If man is 



254 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

not free, Christ's appeal is simply hideous mockery. 
The door is fastened on the inside; you must open 
the door. Christ can break down the door; but he 
will not do it. He will not violate the laws of 
human freedom; these laws are his ordainment; 
they express his will; they proclaim our manhood. 
We must rise and open the door. Why do you not 
rise, that the heavenly Guest may enter? You 
treat no other visitor so ill as you treat Jesus Christ. 
You would open your home to me, your hand to me, 
your purse to me, your heart to me. I am only the 
lowly servant ; but Christ is the divine Master. You 
open your door to the servant; you leave it shut 
in the face of the Master. You unspeakably hu- 
miliate me, because your honor me while you dis- 
honor my Lord. Shut me out, if you will; but let 
the blessed Jesus into your hearts now ! 

I said, a moment ago, that one is very much 
struck, in studying these letters, with the wonder- 
ful condescension and divine graciousness of Jesus 
Christ. It would seem as if, when he was on earth, 
condescension could not go farther than it did with 
Jesus. He showed us then that the door of mercy 
was wide open ; but he is unspeakably more gracious 
now. Then he said, " Come unto me." He exhorted 
us to knock, saying, " To him that knocketh, it shall 
be opened." But now he reverses the entire proc- 
ess. Now he is lovingly saying, " Let me come 
to you." This thought never fully came to me until 
last week. It moved my soul, when it was really 



THE KNOCKING CHRIST 255 

recognized. The whole process, as I said before, is 
now reversed. Then he urged us to ask, saying, 
" Every one that asketh, receiveth." He urged us 
to seek, saying, " He that seeketh, findeth." Now 
he knocks, asking us to open to him. This is mar- 
velous condescension. He now knocks at our 
hearts, asking leave to enter. The question is no 
longer, " Will he hear our prayer ? " The question 
is, " Shall we hear his prayer ? " Not, " Shall he 
open the door to us?" But, " Shall we open the 
door to him ? " Such condescension must excite the 
wonder, admiration, and adoration of the angels ! 

Christ's Appeal. 

I have spoken of Christ's attitude, and of Christ's 
activity; let me speak now of Christ's Appeal. He 
speaks with his hand, but he speaks also with his 
voice. He speaks with his hands, and he speaks 
also with his lips. We have thus more than the 
mere sound of his knocking; we have the echoes of 
his voice, saying, " Behold, I stand at the door, and 
knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the 
door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, 
and he with me." This appeal is to every human 
being who hears the sound of his hand, or the voice 
of his heart. The application is wide as the sound 
of hand and heart; surely we cannot longer resist 
this appeal. He has spoken to us in sorrow ; he has 
spoken to us in joy; he has spoken to us in adver- 
sity; he has spoken to us in prosperity. Hear his 



256 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

voice once more, " Behold, I stand at the door, and 
knock ; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, 
I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he 
with me." Do you not hear the voice of Jesus now ? 
O man, O woman, O boy, O girl, rise, open the 
door, and let Jesus in! Did you not catch the 
thought sung by the quartet this morning? Have 
you no room for Jesus? There was no room for 
him, as a babe, in the inn at Bethlehem. Is there 
no room for him in this church ? fetter that it had 
never been built, than that it had no room for Jesus. 
Is there no room for him in your home? Better 
that you were homeless, than that you should have 
a house which has no room for Jesus ; such a home 
is not a home truly. It is merely a house, and not 
really a home. Better have a roofless house, than 
a Christless home. Is there no room for him in 
your heart ? Better that it never began to beat. Is 
there no room for Christ in your life? Better far, 
for you, if you had not been born. 

Christ's Abidance. 

I speak to you, in the last place, of Christ's Abid- 
ance — "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if 
any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will 
come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with 
me." Jesus and some of us have been supping 
together for a good many years. We are on good 
terms. He loves us with a love passing knowledge, 
and we love him with a love passing speech. This 



THE KNOCKING CHRIST 257 

divine Guest finally becomes our blessed Host. You 
open the door to admit him as Guest and, for a 
time, you are host. The Guest, however, whom 
you admitted, soon becomes Host, and you become 
his guest. Most admirable is this part of the text in 
this thought. This Guest is the divine Christ; this 
Guest is the Bread of life; this Guest is the Giver 
of the feast; this Guest is the Water of life. This 
Guest, who becomes Host, furnishes the marriage 
supper of the Lamb. Let us sup forevermore with 
Jesus. 

The story of Alfred the Great, coming to the 
home of the cowherd, and caring for the bread 
which the peasant woman was baking, may be apoc- 
ryphal. In any case, he was a remarkable man. 
Literary men from all parts of Europe visited his 
court. The prevailing tradition, that he founded 
the University of Oxford, is of doubtful authority ; 
but it is quite certain that he, at least, greatly im- 
proved the monastic school which previously ex- 
isted at Oxford. His translation of Latin works 
was of great advantage to his needy countrymen. 
His disposition was amiable toward all, and he was 
merciful and forgiving toward his enemies. Free- 
man, the great historian, says : " He was a saint 
without superstition, a scholar without ostentation, 
a conqueror whose hands were never stained with 
cruelty, a prince never cast down by adversity, and 
never lifted up to insolence in the day of triumph." 
Neglecting his duty, and permitting the bread to 



258 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

burn, the peasant woman gave him sharp rebuke. 
Her reproofs he received with all lowliness of mind. 
This incident, even though apocryphal, has given 
the world an exalted conception of Alfred's humil- 
ity; indeed, some have not hesitated to discover in 
him, at this point, markedly Christie qualities. But, 
to make the parallel between Alfred and Christ 
complete, Alfred must have transformed that peas- 
ant cottage into a palace, its rude chairs into a 
throne, and the peasant man and woman into king 
and queen to preside in this palace, sharing with 
King Alfred royal honors. When Christ becomes 
Guest and Host in our soul's home he, by his divine 
grace, effects this heavenly transformation, this 
gloriously divine metamorphosis. O men and 
women, open the heart's door to Christ, this morn- 
ing ! Take him " far ben " with you, at this time, 
into your heart's home! Do not leave him outside 
the door, nor even in the " but " of your soul-house ! 
Dethrone every idol, and enthrone Jesus Christ; 
and then your divine Guest will become your blessed 
Host, and you shall sup with him in his glorious 
kingdom, as a sharer in all his regal honors and 
heavenly glories! 



XX 

THE ILLATIVE EXHORTATION 

Text: Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, 
immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, 
forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the 
Lord. — i Cor. is : 58. 

THE most notable Epistles of the Apostle Paul 
were written to the Corinthians or written at 
Corinth. A very remarkable city was Corinth, the 
capital of Achaia. It was situated on the isthmus 
which separated the Ionian Sea from the ^Egean 
Sea. It was, therefore, called bimaris, that is, " on 
two seas." It had two ports, Lechseum on the 
west, and Cenchrea on the east. The traffic of both 
the East and the West poured through its gates. 
Being at the gate of the Peloponnesus, it was the 
highway between Northern and Southern Greece. 
It thus became one of the wealthiest and most popu- 
lous cities in Greece ; it was also the home of pride, 
of effeminacy, of lasciviousness, of sybaritism, and 
of all related vices. The abominations peculiar to 
the worship of Venus were not only tolerated in 
Corinth, but were honored and even consecrated. 

In this city of Corinth for a year and a half, the 
Apostle Paul preached the glorious gospel. He 

259 



200 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

preached at first to the Jews, and later and more 
successfully, to the Gentiles. He supported himself 
meanwhile by working at his trade of tent-making. 
Intelligence concerning the divisions in the church 
at Corinth was brought to Paul at Ephesus by mem- 
bers of the family of Chloe, and also by a letter 
sent him from the church itself, requesting advice. 
This intelligence led to the writing of this Epistle 
near the close of his three-year stay at Ephesus, 
about a. d. 57. 

Numerous and bitter factions had arisen in the 
church in Corinth. The standard of Christian liv- 
ing in that church was far lower than it is in Cal- 
vary Church to-day. These bitter contentions led 
to open schism. The Judaizing element was very 
strong. Party spirit was also extremely prevalent. 
One class claimed to be of Peter, another of Paul, 
and another of Apollos, and others of Christ. 
Teachers of false philosophies also appeared and 
gross immoralities were practised and tolerated. 
The apostle wrote this Epistle to correct, as far as 
possible, these errors. In writing it, he gave many 
directions regarding celibacy and marriage, regard- 
ing the eating of food offered to idols, regarding 
decorum in public assemblies, regarding the proper 
observance of the Lord's Supper ; he then elaborated 
his unanswerable argument for the resurrection. 
This Epistle was written before the earliest Gospel, 
and it shows that already the resurrection was part 
of the apostolic creed. After this discussion, the 



THE ILLATIVE EXHORTATION 26l 

apostle closed the Epistle with friendly greetings to 
the members of the church. This fifteenth chapter 
has been read by me thousands of times at funerals. 
There is no portion of God's word which has been 
read so often in times of deep sorrow as this 
marvelous and matchless chapter. 

The Wonderful Greeks. 

It was an honor for the Apostle Paul to have had 
so great a part in introducing the gospel to any por- 
tion of the Greek nation. In literature and art the 
Greeks surpassed the world. One is almost over- 
whelmed when he thinks of the achievements of this 
remarkable people. Greece proper was not so large 
as the State of Maine; and out of a section of a 
country, not so large as that State, have come influ- 
ences that have shaped the philosophy, art, and re- 
ligion of the world. Think of a nation that gave 
to the world the Homeric and the Hesiodic poems, 
a nation that gave to the world lyric poetry, repre- 
sented by Pindar and by Sappho ; a nation that gave 
to the world tragedy, represented by ^Eschylus, 
Sophocles, and Euripides ; a nation that gave to the 
world comedy, represented by Cratinus, Eupolis, and 
xAristophanes ; history, represented by Herodotus, 
Thucydides, Polybius, Plutarch, and Xenophon; a 
nation that gave to the world oratory, represented by 
Demosthenes, Pericles, and ^Eschines ; a nation that 
gave to the world philosophy, represented by Socra- 
tes, Plato, and Aristotle — Plato greater than Soc- 



262 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

rates, Aristotle greater than Plato; a nation that 
gave to the world statesmanship, represented by 
Themistocles and Pericles ; mathematics, represented 
by Euclid and Archimedes; medicine and anatomy, 
represented by Hippocrates, justly called " the father 
of medicine " ; a country that gave to the world 
sculpture and painting, represented by Phidias, 
Praxiteles, Zeuxis, and Apelles ! One stands almost 
in awe of the achievements of the Greeks. When 
one remembers the smallness of the country, and 
remembers, further, that many of these men whose 
names have now been pronounced were contempora- 
ries, one is still more amazed at the achievements of 
that people. There never was anything like it in 
any other country in the history of the race; there 
probably never will be anything like it in any 
country in the future. 

Now among this remarkable people the gospel 
achieved superb triumphs. The gospel is suited to 
the barbarian, and it is equally suited to the cul- 
tured Greek. The Greek language became the 
channel through which flowed the blessings of the 
New Testament Scriptures. The Greek language 
is the most philosophical, the most perfect, the most 
beautiful language of the world. God chose that 
exact language to be the vehicle for the transmis- 
sion of the Gospels and the Epistles. When men 
say they are in doubt as to the meaning of baptism, 
or any other ordinance of God, they ought to be 
reminded that God has no other language among 



THE ILLATIVE EXHORTATION 263 

men so exact as the Greek. When God said baptizo, 
he meant immerse, and immerse only; the scholar- 
ship of the whole world agrees with that statement. 
If God had so meant, and had so wished to express 
himself, he chose the exact word in the exactest 
language on earth to express that thought. If he- 
did not express that thought, then he could not ex- 
press it in any human language. Greek philosophy 
became, in part, the handmaid of Christian theology, 
just as German idealism is shaping the New 
Theology of to-day. Greek philosophy shaped the 
formulation, at least, of the theological thought in 
the period immediately succeeding Christ and the 
apostles. These cultured Greeks became theolo- 
gians, philosophers, and preachers. I rejoice that 
ours is a gospel that meets the Greek on his own 
ground; and that some of the descendants of the 
greatest philosophers the world has ever known, 
and some of the philosophers themselves, accepted 
Christ and his glorious gospel. 

For three centuries, the bishops of Rome were 
mainly of Greek extraction. Most of the churches 
in the West were the outgrowth of Greek religious 
colonies. Their language, their litanies, their litur- 
gies w r ere of Greek origin. The Greek Fathers have 
largely controlled the religious thinking of the world. 
Better would it have been, if they had controlled it 
more fully. The names of Justin Martyr, Origen, 
Basil " the Great," Gregory Nazianzus, and the elo- 
quent Chrysostom suggest the mighty influence of 



264 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

the Greek Fathers. The moment the Latin Fathers 
began to exercise influence, they carried over into 
theology the idea of Caesar as the autocratic ruler; 
they really made God a gigantic Caesar ; they often 
made him a tyrant, brutal, dogmatic, resistless, 
heartless. One shrinks from many of the represen- 
tations of God given by Augustine, by Calvin, and 
by others who followed the lead of the Latin Fa- 
thers. The Greek Fathers were safer as guides. 
Beautiful was it that these philosophical Greeks, 
both of the earlier and the later day, sat at the feet 
of the Apostle Paul; it is still more beautiful that 
they sat at the feet of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Man 
of Galilee, was the Master of Greek poets, trage- 
dians, philosophers, theologians. These thoughts 
are naturally suggested by the masterful chapter, 
the closing verse of which is the text this morning. 

An Instructive Inference. 

We have in this text, in the first place, An In- 
structive Inference — " Therefore " ; this word gives 
us an illative exhortation. The Apostle Paul was a 
profound reasoner; he was a masterful logician. 
He swept the entire gamut of oratory and of logic. 
Oratory has been defined as logic set on fire. The 
Apostle Paul's logic is a fine illustration of this 
definition. Read the fifteenth chapter from its first 
word to its last, and you will be profoundly im- 
pressed with the ability of the apostle both as a 
logician and as a theologian. He calls upon both 



THE ILLATIVE EXHORTATION 265 

nature and art to prove the doctrine of the resur- 
rection. It is evident that the doctrine of the res- 
urrection had been denied at Corinth. Sadducean 
Jews or philosophical Greeks regarded this doctrine 
with ridicule. No theologian since Paul's day has 
at all approached the lofty heights of reasoning to 
which he leads us in this famous chapter. But you 
will observe that he does not reason regarding the 
doctrine of resurrection for the sake of reasoning; 
he does not reason merely for the sake of establish- 
ing the truth of that doctrine. The Apostle Paul 
was profoundly practical. He discussed that doc- 
trine because of its relation to duty. Many preach- 
ers and theological professors have failed exactly at 
this point. There are teachers of theology who teach 
with as little religious emotion, and with as little 
relation to practical duty, as if they were discuss- 
ing chemistry or mathematics. Such teachers are 
false to the high standard placed before them by the 
Apostle Paul. See the practical inference which 
he draws as he nears the close of this famous fif- 
teenth chapter, " Therefore, my beloved brethren, 
be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in 
the work of the Lord." All his teaching of doctrine 
tends to the performance of duty; all his precepts 
find their goal in practice; all his arguments cul- 
minate in an appeal to loyal service to God and to 
men. It is impossible unduly to emphasize the sig- 
nificance of this suggestive inference, this illative 
argument and appeal. 



266 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 



An Affectional Appellation. 

Notice, in the second place, that we have here 
An Affectional Appellation — " my beloved breth- 
ren/' The watchword of the French Revolution 
was, " Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." This 
watchword denoted the salient principles of the 
social philosophers of the eighteenth century. This 
phrase was the political confession of faith of the 
first French republic. These are certainly three 
suggestive and beautiful words; they are worthy 
of a place in Christian literature; they deserve to 
be frequently mentioned in the pulpit : " Liberty, 
Equality, and Fraternity." They lay at the basis of 
the aspirations of the French republic, as somewhat 
similar words underlie the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. These words are worthy of the Apostle Paul. 
In Russia, nominally, every Russian is brother to 
every other Russian; the Russian addresses the 
same word to his father, to the starosta, to the em- 
peror, and to God — " Batiushka " ; he also calls 
every Russian, whether known to him or not, 
" Brat," brother ; but, practically, this creed is ut- 
terly denied. Theoretically, it is beautifully formu- 
lated ; wherever a Russian is found by another Rus- 
sian, there, according to the theory, two brothers 
have met. The old Greeks said, " Where there are 
Hellenes, there is Hellas." But not in France in 
the time of the Revolution, and not in Russia at 
any time, but only where a true Christianity is domi- 



THE ILLATIVE EXHORTATION 267 

nant, are there true liberty, equality, fraternity, and 
a real brotherhood. Only as men recognize the 
Fatherhood of God, can they observe the brother- 
hood of men. 

Most beautiful is it that the Apostle Paul applies 
the term " brethren " to the Corinthians to whom he 
was writing. He was a man of Hebrew blood, but 
he realized that every man who has been washed 
from sin in the blood of Jesus Christ is brother to 
every other man who has passed through a similar 
experience. Every man who has known Christ is 
brother to every other man who has participated in 
that blessed knowledge. Did you ever stop to think 
of the significance of our word kind? It is closely 
related to kin; it is just k-i-n-n-e-d. The man who 
is kind to his brother-man shows that he is kin to 
that brother-man. The love of God made the 
Apostle Paul brother to every Corinthian. 

Not only was each Corinthian Christian a brother, 
but he was a brother beloved. I know that often in 
public address, we hear, and perhaps we use, such 
phraseology in a merely thoughtless spirit. Such 
terms are often only conventional. Men stand be- 
fore audiences and say, " Dearly beloved brethren " ; 
but probably their love often is only from their lips 
outward. But here is a man who spoke from his 
soul ; and every man in that Corinthian church was 
his brother. There were bad men in that church; 
there were abominably bad men in that church ; and 
yet Paul says, " beloved brethren " ; and not only 



268 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

" beloved brethren," but " my beloved brethren." 
They were in his soul, and not merely on his lips, 
not merely on the point of his pen. Let us catch his 
spirit. The Christian church ought to be the place 
where love shall have its constant manifestation. 
The Christian church ought to reflect the very spirit 
of Christ, its Lord and Master. In the church, love 
should be without dissimulation. 

A Stirring Exhortation. 

Notice, in the third place, that we have here A 
Stirring Exhortation—" be ye stedfast, unmovable, 
always abounding in the work of the Lord." As 
we look at this exhortation, we discover that it is 
twofold. The first part is an exhortation toward 
stability — " stedfast, unmovable." Are these terms 
tautological? As we grow older, we become ex- 
tremely careful in our criticism of the word of 
God. Many criticisms of the word of God, re- 
garded simply as literature, show the shallowness 
of the critic rather than the erroneousness of the 
word. We have heard men criticize the Apostle 
Paul as being guilty of an anticlimax, when he says : 
" Neither death, nor life . . . shall be able to 
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord." If ever there was a true climax, 
this is it. " Neither death, nor life," the apostle 
says. Life, in his view, is the point of danger, not 
death. What is death? The lexicons say it is the 
cessation of all the vital functions. Is this definition 



THE ILLATIVE EXHORTATION 269 

correct ? What is death ? Death is the dropping of 
the flower, that the inner life and hidden fruit may 
blossom and ripen. What is death? Longfellow 
answers, it is but " a covered bridge leading from 
light to light through a brief darkness." What is 
death ? He again answers : 

There is no death! What seems 
so is transition; 

This life of mortal breath 
Is but a suburb of the life elysian, 

Whose portal we call death. 

What is death ? God's porter to swing wide open 
the gates of glory to his believing children. Death 
does not separate us from God. The apostle was 
guilty of no anticlimax. We ought to be very cau- 
tious not to charge him with tautology here. I in- 
cline to think that this last term is a stronger term 
than the one that preceded it. " Stedfast " may re- 
fer to inner desires ; " unmovable " to influences 
from without. " Be ye stedfast " ; when all is calm, 
when the sun shines, when the birds sing, when 
hearts are light, when the home is radiant, be sted- 
fast. Aye, but the sun will not always shine, the 
heart will not always be joyous, times of storm and 
cloud and shadow will come ; then what ? Then be 
" unmovable " ; then stand like a rock ; then prove 
your faith; then show your pluck; then manifest 
your love. These two words are not tautology; 
they are sound theology. 

Next comes the active side of this exhortation: 



270 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

"Always abounding in the work of the Lord." Ac- 
tivity in God's service is the surest evidence of 
reality in Christian faith. The man who refuses 
to translate his creed into deed, is a man whose 
creed is comparatively worthless. A deedless creed 
is worse than a creedless deed. Activity in God's 
service is the best cure for many of the ills of life. 
Sorrow has a tendency to make men and women 
selfish. They are apt to think that there is no such 
sorrow as theirs, and so thinking, they become crit- 
ical, cynical, captious, and acrid toward men, and 
unbelieving and unloving toward God. But the 
man who is in sorrow, and who goes out to help 
others, brings the richest blessing to his own soul. 
The man who sits down in the shadow, reflecting on 
his own crosses, magnifies his crosses ; but the man 
who rises to help lift some other cross, lightens his 
own cross, and makes his own path radiant with 
heavenly joy. This is the thought in the mind of 
the apostle, as he closed this sublime argument for 
the doctrine of the resurrection. 

A Sufficient Reason. 

Permit me now to close by calling attention to 
one other thought in the text, A Sufficient Reason 
for the preceding exhortation — " forasmuch as ye 
know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." 
Our labor is not in vain when it is performed for 
God. No word spoken of God or for God was 
ever spoken in vain. The words spoken and sung 



THE ILLATIVE EXHORTATION 27 1 

by some of us at the cemetery the other day, were 
not spoken and sung in vain. No labor for God is 
ever in vain. His word will not return unto him 
void; it will accomplish that which he pleases; it 
will prosper in the thing whereto he sent it. Not 
only is labor not in vain, but we have the blessed 
knowledge that it is not in vain — " forasmuch as ye 
know/' not ye think, ye suppose, ye imagine, ye 
fancy, but ye know. Let us rest on and rejoice in 
these sublime and divine truths. 

There are two great works of art which set forth 
the irrepressible conflict between man and spiritual 
evil. This conflict underlies all mythologies, all phi- 
losophies, all theologies, in all centuries and in all 
countries. The first of these works of art is the 
Laocoon. This remarkable work was discovered in 
1506, in the ruins of the baths of Titus, on the Es- 
quiline hill at Rome. It was carried to Paris, but 
was returned to Rome in 1814. It was purchased 
by Pope Julius II, and is now in the museum of 
the Vatican. It was probably the work of the Rho- 
dian artists Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodorus. 
The legend of this Trojan hero and priest of Apollo 
was a favorite subject with the poets and artists of 
ancient Greece. The story of Laocoon and his sons, 
encoiled by serpents and suffering the agonies of 
strangulation, is especially related by Virgil. In 
many respects, this group is one of the masterpieces 
in Greek sculpture. Wonderful as were the Greek 
paintings, Greek sculpture was still more remark- 



2J2 THE CHRISTIC REIGN 

able. The reason for this is that the Greek mind 
did not often make a painting a subject of any sort 
of worship, but it made sculpture represent deity. 
The story of Laocoon has been marvelously trans- 
lated into marble. Here is the priest-father, vainly 
endeavoring to tear the coiling serpents from him- 
self and his children; but the serpent has wound 
itself around the arms and legs of himself and his 
boys. He is utterly helpless ; he is absolutely hope- 
less ; he sinks in despair. The artist has caught the 
scene at the moment of highest passion; and just 
after the highest passion has been reached, there is 
a moment of repose. But it is the repose not of 
hope, the repose not of trust, not of victory, not of 
resignation, but the repose of blank, mute, hopeless, 
heroic despair. 

Superb as was the Greek mind, yet without God, 
without Christ, without faith, it was also without 
light, hope, or joy. The Laocoon is the agony of 
despair without hope. 

The other symbolic work of art is St. George and 
the Dragon. Again the same struggle is portrayed ; 
but here triumph is secured. The Christian knight is 
chivalrous, heroic, victorious; he is the comrade of 
the " Strong Son of God." Victory is secured by 
the interposition of another; redemption for the 
weak is won by the strong arm and brave heart of 
a deliverer. The same conflict is before us to-day. 
Oh, why should innocence suffer? Why should 
sweet young lives go out? Why should our hearts 



THE ILLATIVE EXHORTATION 273 

be torn with grief? All Greek philosophy is dumb, 
Greek oratory is silent, Greek art is despairing; but 
Christian faith strikes the note of triumph, and we 
stand here to-day to shout our Te Deam, " O death, 
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 
Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ." 




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